Ontario Premier Ford says he looks forward to having public servants back in office full time. Natalie Johnson has the details. <\/p>\n
More than 60,000 Ontario Public Service workers will be required to return to the office full time starting in January 2026, the province announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
Minister Caroline Mulroney, who serves as the president of the Treasury Board, made the announcement in a news release and said the transition \u201crepresents the current workforce landscape in the province.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario Public Service workers had previously been mandated to work from the office a minimum of three days a week. The province said that, based on the nature of their work, over half of all public servants are already required to attend the office in-person full time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the government delivers on our plan to protect Ontario, we will continue to drive public service excellence for the people of Ontario. Effective January 5, 2026, the Ontario Public Service and its provincial agencies, boards and commission public bodies will return to the office full time,\u201d Mulroney wrote.<\/p>\n
Employees currently working in the office three days a week will need to increase their in-person attendance to four days a week starting on Oct. 20, before remote work comes to an end in January, the province said.<\/p>\n
Mulroney said that the move is an \u201cimportant step\u201d that supports the government\u2019s efforts to build a \u201cmore competitive, resilient and self-reliant Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s public servants were first called back to the office for a minimum commitment of three days per week back in 2022<\/a>. At that time, roughly half of them had been working remotely for part, or all, of the two years that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Last year, federal employees in the core public service were called back to the office <\/a>for a minimum of three days a week.<\/p>\n Rogers Communications Inc. <\/a>joined a number of other companies in the private sector last month in asking its corporate employees to return to the office. The telecom company is now requiring workers to be in the office four days a week as of October and five days a week starting in February.<\/p>\n TD Bank, RBC, and Scotiabank have also mandated a four-day in-office work week starting in September.<\/p>\n \u2018Everyone needs to go back to work\u2019<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters about the decision at an unrelated news conference on Thursday morning, Premier Doug Ford said he believes workers are \u201cmore productive\u201d in the office. <\/p>\n \u201cHow do you mentor someone over a phone? You can\u2019t. You\u2019ve got to look at them eye-to-eye, over the water cooler, wherever, train them, camaraderie. Plus, the economy too,\u201d he said, adding that businesses in Toronto\u2019s financial district have suffered from remote work policies. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll just use downtown Toronto, for example, the PATH. You know there\u2019s hardworking entrepreneurs that basically their businesses just died when they weren\u2019t seeing the flow of traffic,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Ford underscored the decision by the big banks and Rogers to force workers back to the office five days a week did not influence the timing of the province\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n \u201cI understand all the companies I\u2019ve talked to, from the banks to the insurance companies, to everyone else, everyone needs to go back to work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is just time. Everyone is kind of saying, \u2018It\u2019s time to get back to work,\u2019\u201d the premier said. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for the work they do. We have the best public service in Canada and I appreciate the work they do everyday.\u201d <\/p>\n Workers\u2019 union head \u2018incensed\u2019<\/p>\n In a statement <\/a>released following the announcement, Dave Bulmer, the president and CEO of AMAPCEO, the union which represents thousands of Ontario public servants, said he was \u201cincensed\u201d by the news.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ontario Public Service (OPS) Employer was hellbent on removing your right to remote work in the last two rounds of bargaining. The Secretary of Cabinet wants unilateral control over where, and when, you work. AMAPCEO successfully fought back and preserved your ability to request an alternative work agreement, ensure it\u2019s considered fairly, and dispute any denials,\u201d he said, pointing to a new 3-year tentative agreement <\/a>that was reached with the province in July.<\/p>\n \u201cAMAPCEO is going to continue to fight for flexibility for members who want it and stop the Secretary from dragging Ontario\u2019s hardworking public service back to the Stone Age.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) called on the province to halt its return-to-office plan and engage in a meaningful dialogue with workers\u2019 unions.<\/p>\n OPSEU President JP Hornick called the policy a \u201cslap in the face.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cDecisions like this about our members\u2019 working conditions should be made in consultation with those workers, not through public announcements,\u201d Hornick said. <\/p>\n OPSEU shared that its Central Employee Relations Committee (CERC), which represents OPS workers, was given less than an hour\u2019s notice before the public announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a top-down decision made without transparency, without negotiation, and without any evidence that it will improve service to the people of Ontario,\u201d Amanda Usher, the chair of OPS Unified CERC, said in a statement.<\/p>\n She criticized the province\u2019s blanket approach, which she said ignored the diversity of OPS workplaces, job functions and individual needs.<\/p>\n \u201cMany OPS workers have built their lives around the flexibility of hybrid work, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, disabilities, or long commutes,\u201d Usher said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Ford says he looks forward to having public servants back in office full time. 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