The challenge to the requirement for federal public servants to come to work at least three days a week in the office will be heard by the Tribunal. The Federal Court has in fact refused the government’s request to dismiss outright the challenge by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Under the directive of the federal government of 1er Last May, federal civil servants will have to come to work in the office at least three days a week as of September 9.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) filed a motion on May 31 before the Federal Court, contesting this directive, in addition to filing grievances and complaints and inviting its members to also file individual grievances.
The federal government had then attempted to convince the Federal Court to summarily dismiss the PSAC’s application or to suspend its hearing until decisions were rendered on the grievances and complaints relating to the subject.
But the Federal Court dismissed the government’s request, finding that it had failed to convince it that it was necessary to dismiss the PSAC’s application at this stage of the proceedings.
The Federal Court also did not accept the federal government’s argument that the challenge presented by the PSAC before it would duplicate its efforts before other authorities.
She therefore agrees to hear the substance of the request from the large pan-Canadian union of federal public servants, which has 170,000 members.
The Alliance welcomed the move. “The Federal Court’s decision to hear our case represents a real step forward in the fight by federal public servants for a fair and transparent approach to telework,” said PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa.
The Alliance adds that the hearing of the case on the merits “is a decisive step in the quest for transparency by unions and their members in the matter of returning to the office three days a week, because the government will have to make public all the facts on which it relied to order this return.”
When the directive was announced, Treasury Board President Anita Anand said the current policy was already “two to three days a week” and that it would simply go to three days a week. And managers will go to four days a week.
The Alliance is also planning demonstrations this week against this mandatory return to the office three days a week, including Wednesday noon at the Guy-Favreau Complex in Montreal and Thursday noon at the Estimauville building in Quebec City.