A Federal Court judge has ordered a full hearing to review the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s (PSAC) application to quash the new three-day-a-week office mandate for federal workers this fall, according to the union.
The Treasury Board Secretariat announced in May that all federal workers in the core public administration will be required to be in the office a minimum of three days a week, starting Sept. 9. All managers will need to be in the office four days a week.
PSAC launched a legal challenge to the new return-to-office mandate. On Thursday, Justice Glennys McVeigh ruled the Federal Court will hold a full hearing into PSAC’s legal application.
“The Federal Court’s decision to hear our case is an important win for federal workers fighting for a fair and transparent approach to telework,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC’s national president. “Remote work is the future of work, and we won’t let the government off the hook for breaking their commitments and ignoring the voices of federal public service workers.”
PSAC says the hearing will be a “major step for unions and workers looking for transparency around its decision to bring workers back into the office.”
“The government will now need to make their case and present their reasoning for making the decision to bring workers back to the office,” the union said.
In May, federal unions announced they would launch legal challenges and encouraged public sector workers to file “tens of thousands” of grievances over the new mandate.
Tens of thousands of federal workers began working from home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2023, the government implemented the current hybrid work policy requiring federal public servants work in the office two or three days a week.