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Alberta’s 9,000 unionized provincial employees are going back to the office full time starting this weekend, but not without a brown bag protest.
Bobby-Joe Borodey, vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, says workers are planning to place the bags on their desk with a note stating: “Hybrid work tastes better.”
Borodey said the bag symbolizes pushback on the provincial government ending its hybrid work policy in what she calls a decision tied to revitalizing businesses near government offices.
She said it also symbolizes other union concerns with the end of the work-from-home program, including bad faith negotiating, lack of office space and impacts to mental health.
“One of the rationale provided by the government [to] cancel the program was that they were hoping to revitalize the downtown core in various locations across the province and having members return to work would be the magic sauce,” Borodey said in an interview.
“If [the government] feels that this return to work is automatically going to fix the problems in our downtown cores, you would be mistaken. In a show of solidarity, we will endeavour to ensure that we bring our lunch from home and [send a message] it would taste better if it was hybrid.”
Alberta’s United Conservative Party government announced the cancellation of its hybrid work policy in October and ordered workers back to the office full time starting Sunday. Other employees returning to work are outside the union, such as managers.
The policy had allowed employees to work from home two out of five days each week as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which began in early 2022.
The government said circumstances have changed.
“As of August 2025, nearly 12,600 APS employees, or approximately 44 per cent of the workforce, participated in hybrid arrangements,” said the October announcement from the Deputy Ministers’ Council, a steering committee composed of the government’s top civil servants.
The statement said the decision is in line with those made by other organizations, including the Ontario government, and that exceptions can be made for medical reasons.
In a statement Thursday, a press secretary for Alberta’s finance ministry rejected the accusation that the government told the union it wants to boost local economies by ordering workers back to the office. Marisa Breeze stressed that it’s about doing the best work possible.
“Alberta’s public service is returning to full-time, in-office work in February to strengthen collaboration, accountability and service delivery for Albertans,” Breeze said in an email.
“This decision was made independently by the Public Service Commission as part of its responsibility to manage the public service and ensure operational excellence.”
Governments in Manitoba, British Columbia and New Brunswick have said they allow hybrid work, while the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador said they were reviewing their remote work policies.
Borodey said Alberta’s policy cancellation is a betrayal.
She said the union was assured by the government in contract talks last year that employees would still be able to request hybrid work. The union took that as a signal that the government would not cancel the work-from-home plan, Borodey said.
Within six weeks, the cancellation was announced.
“There was no disclosure throughout the entire bargaining process indicating that there were plans to remove the hybrid work policy,” she said.
“Why engage in contract negotiations to include wording around how they would respond to a policy that they had plans to pull?
“It left a very nasty taste in the mouth of those workers who ratified that agreement.”
She said more than 725 workers have filed grievances over the back-to-office order since their applications requesting hybrid work were rejected.
Union members have also expressed concern that there won’t be enough desks, as hybrid hours had allowed workers to rotate workspaces.
Breeze said every worker will have work space. “In fact, roughly 99 per cent will already be assigned their permanent workspaces.”
Borodey said mental health is also an issue for those going back to the office.
“What I hear from members who have pulled me aside to talk to me about this is the ability to be in a space that is distraction- and disruption-free does wonders for mental health,” she said.
“To be in your own space and do your own work is just quite profound, … recognizing that it does not decrease productivity or results.”
