The return to office last week by thousands of Ontario public servants has been “disrespectful,” “piecemeal” and filled with “unnecessary confusion,” say the workers’ unions, who point out some ministries and agencies still don’t have enough space to meet Premier Doug Ford’s order.
Last week, thousands of workers were to report to the office for four days of work instead of three, as a result of an order from the Progressive Conservative government this summer. The move has rankled workers who have had hybrid arrangements for more than three years and say it will cost taxpayers more because of the need to buy or lease new office space.
The head of the AMAPCEO, which represents some 17,000 professional, administrative and supervisory employees in the Ontario Public Service, says the process has been “very disruptive.” The government does not have enough space for the workers it ordered back, said Dave Bulmer in an interview with CBC News.
“There’s had to have been a lot of ad hoc arrangements being made by local managers and directors, because they just don’t have the space to accommodate people,” he said. “So, things are not going exactly to plan.”
In August, Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney announced that the 60,000 employees of the Ontario Public Service, provincial agencies, boards and commissions had to “increase their attendance to four days per week” starting Oct. 20 and transition to full-time hours in-office effective Jan. 5, 2026.
It’s a change from a policy that has been in place since April 2022, when provincial government employees were mandated to be in their offices at least three days per week.
Ontario government busy signing leases, union says
Bulmer says the government and its arms-length agencies are busy buying buildings and signing leases to ensure they can accommodate the workers. But it couldn’t be executed on the timeline the Ford government set down, he said.
“These are places that are not just missing a few seats or desks, but are missing entire floors worth of space,” he said, pointing specifically to the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) and Ontario Health.
Bulmer estimates that approximately 10,000 of AMAPCEO’s members returned to four days in the office last week. Approximately 6,000 of the union’s members have pre-existing contractual hybrid work arrangements which the government will still have to honour despite the change, he said.
And thousands of those who have returned to the office are currently applying for some form of flexible work, he said.
“I think it’s been very piecemeal,” Bulmer said of the return to office. “We have people … not even knowing what floor they’re going to or where they’re supposed to sit. It’s just unnecessary confusion from our perspective.”
Both the WSIB and Ontario Health told CBC News that they are currently working to meet the province’s directive and increase available space for their workers.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents roughly half of the Ontario Public Service workforce, said in a statement that the return to office order was a “direct show of disrespect” to workers.
Last week was full of confusion for union members, said Amanda Usher, chair of the OPSEU OPS unified central employee relations committee and unified bargaining team.
“Updates from the government on logistics, space considerations, and accommodations requests have been slow, inconsistent and inadequate, leaving workers with more questions than answers,” Usher said in a statement.
She said the move was made without consulting workers or providing evidence to justify the decision.
“We have heard from members that some of their offices were restructured under the assumption that the hybrid work model was here to stay,” she said. “And now, they don’t even know if there will be a desk or adequate workspace when they’re told to return to the office.”
Usher said the union is closely monitoring the ongoing situation, “as only then will the full scope of flaws in this plan become clear.”
A spokesperson from Mulroney said a review of all government office space has been conducted to see if there are any space limitations, and it found “the vast majority” of OPS offices have adequate space for the return.
“The Ministry of Infrastructure is working with other ministries to address any limited instances of space constraints,” Liz Tuomi said in a statement.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government should have consulted with the public service before making its decision in August. It’s no surprise their plan has hit a snag, she said.
“As usual, the premier talks before he actually has a plan or has any information,” she said. “What they should have done was actually had a plan in place, first of all, and start with listening to the workers themselves.”
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the decision is a “check the box” exercise which offers little value to taxpayers. It will make traffic around the Greater Toronto Area worse as government workers join the commute, he added.
“This whole back to your office mandate is a back to gridlock mandate,” he said.
“The premier’s creating traffic chaos here in the core around Queen’s Park and where public sector buildings are, but he’s also creating chaos within those buildings, because they clearly have no plan to have enough space for workers.”
