{"id":391532,"date":"2026-01-06T10:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391532\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:35:13","slug":"b-c-maintains-status-quo-on-public-sector-workers-going-back-to-office-full-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391532\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. maintains status quo on public sector workers going back to office full-time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Monday was the first day in Ontario that <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11599742\/ontario-full-time-office-return-civil-servants-first-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">public sector workers must return to the office<\/a> five days a week, prompting questions in B.C. about <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/remote-work\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remote work<\/a> options for civil servants.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a revitalization of rural communities where people can live and work for lower cost of living,\u201d Paul Finch, president of the BCGEU, told Global News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cThat means they\u2019re able to work for the provincial government where otherwise they wouldn\u2019t be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>The BC NDP government has not announced any plans to mandate civil servants back to work five days a week, but the Opposition says it\u2019s time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime to get back to the workplace, back to collaboration, back to that team atmosphere that really does drive innovation and problem solving,\u201d said B.C. Conservative finance critic Peter Milobar.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have large centres like Victoria or Kamloops, Prince George, Kelowna, Vancouver, Surrey where there\u2019s a lot of government buildings sitting there and the usual pace and workflow sitting empty \u2014 there comes a time when you\u2019re seeing this across the country, not just in government, but in other workplaces as well, recognizing it\u2019s time to get back to the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11599618\/mickey-rourke-gofundme-prevent-eviction-unpaid-rent\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mickey-rourke-kicked-off-cbb-uk.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tMickey Rourke turns to GoFundMe to \u2018prevent eviction\u2019 over unpaid rent\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11599954\/jack-ryan-episode-predict-venezuela\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CP15651625.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tDid Jack Ryan predict the Venezuela attack? Why this clip is going viral\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alberta announced all public sector workers in that province <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11493242\/alberta-government-hybrid-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">must return to the office full-time starting in February.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, whose portfolio includes the public service, did not make herself available for an interview on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Her ministry confirmed to Global News the government is on board with maintaining the status quo.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Politics<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size Monday was the first day in Ontario that public sector&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[166010,49,48,44,714,12394],"class_list":["post-391532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-back-to-work-legislation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-remote-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}