{"id":492476,"date":"2026-02-22T18:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492476\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T18:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:10:44","slug":"federal-government-says-there-may-not-be-enough-workstations-for-all-workers-4-day-a-week-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492476\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal government says there may not be enough workstations for all workers’ 4-day-a-week return"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The federal government says there may not be enough room in some offices for all workers as the public service prepares to return to the office four days a week starting July 6. <\/p>\n

Civil servants currently only have to come into the office three days a week \u2014 a rule that was put in place in September 2024 as government employees were for the most part working remotely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the federal government announced it expects employees who haven’t done so already to return to in-office work for a minimum of four days a week starting this July. Government executives will be expected in the office five days. <\/p>\n

In a French-language statement emailed this week to Radio-Canada, the Treasury Board of Canada said that Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) will work closely with organizations to ensure “adequate office space” is available for staff. <\/p>\n

PSPC will contact the organizations to address their needs “while recognizing that there may not be enough workstations at some locations to meet the four-day work week requirement for all staff starting July 6,” Martin Potvin, a spokesperson with the Treasury Board stated in the email.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Experts say government’s latest return-to-office order ignores reality:\"\"<\/p>\n

Experts questioning where public servants will work \u2013 and how they\u2019ll get there \u2013 under new RTO order<\/p>\n

CBC\u2019s Priscilla Ki Sun Hwang spoke to experts from commercial real estate to transportation planning about the realities and logistics around public servants returning to the office more often.<\/p>\n

For unions representing federal workers, the Treasury Board’s update only confirms what they already knew. <\/p>\n

“We have been clear from the start: there simply isn\u2019t enough office space or available workstations to support a four-day in-office mandate,” the Public Service Alliance of Canada said in an emailed statement, adding that under the current three-day policy, shared desks are already fully booked in many departments. <\/p>\n

Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said that many departments were not able to implement the three-day-a-week mandate “because there’s a lack of space across the public service.”<\/p>\n

The government held three consultation sessions with unions this week. Discussions focused on the implementation of a timeline for the four-day plan, workspaces, health and safety, accommodations, and exemptions.<\/p>\n

O’Reilly said the government restated at the first meeting that it intends to move ahead in July, “but they [also] maintained it’s not a final decision.” <\/p>\n

“If this isn’t a final decision and July 6th is not the date, let’s take that off the table and actually have real meaningful discussions to see what [a phased approach] looks like,” O’Reilly said. <\/p>\n

Radio-Canada asked the Treasury Board if it’s possible the government might reconsider the July 6 timeline, or be flexible about it. <\/p>\n

“We will continue our mobilization sessions with the bargaining agents regarding the government’s intention to increase the on-site presence of employees in order to ensure proper implementation,” Potvin wrote back in French. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-492476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492476","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=492476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}