Ontario public servants required to go back to office five days week

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Ontario public servants will be required to return to the office full time, with employees going in-person five days a week by January, the government announced Thursday.

Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said in a news release that the province has been monitoring in-workplace standards across the public and private sectors, and the decision “represents the current workforce landscape.”

She said employees who have been going into the office for a minimum of three days a week will increase their attendance to four days a week starting on Oct. 20. with a gradual transition to five days a week in the office by Jan. 5, 2026.

More than half of Ontario’s public servants are already required to attend the workplace full time, she said.

Thousands of government employees had turned to remote work during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. By 2022, most public servants began to transition to a hybrid work model, according to a news release from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union at the time.

Premier Doug Ford said he believes employees are more productive when they work in-person.

“How do you mentor someone over a phone? You can’t. You’ve got to look at them eye to eye,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference Thursday morning.

Ford added that many businesses in downtown Toronto suffered after losing foot traffic due to remote work policies.

OPSEU, which represents about 40,000 public servants, said in a news release Thursday that the decision to return all its workers to the office full time was made “without consideration for the realities frontline public service workers face.”

The union called on the government to immediately halt its return-to-office plan and consult with workers, saying “hybrid work has provided measurable benefits in productivity, retention and well-being.”

OPSEU alleged in the release that an employee relations committee representing workers was given less than an hour’s notice before the announcement, which came during collective bargaining.

“Unilateral decisions like this are a slap in the face to the very workers who kept the OPS running effectively throughout and after the pandemic,” OPSEU president JP Hornick said in a statement.

The president of AMAPCEO, a union representing management and administrative workers including 14,000 public service employees, said he was “incensed” by the decision.

“The Ontario Public Service employer was hellbent on removing your right to remote work in the last two rounds of bargaining,” Dave Bulmer said in a news release Thursday afternoon.

“We have shown that we can, and should, be treated as the capable, trustworthy professionals we are — professionals capable of working for Ontario from anywhere.”

Thursday’s announcement comes after some private sector companies, including several Canadian banks, announced that employees would be required to spend more time at the office.