Question Period Note: Hybrid Work in the Public Service

How is the government addressing issues raised within the public service regarding the updated hybrid work model introduced September 9, 2024?

• Adopting hybrid work was the decision of deputy ministers in the best interests of the federal public service.
• Working together onsite supports the teamwork, collaboration and culture needed to effectively deliver services to Canadians.
• Departments are monitoring implementation, with a focus on duty to accommodate, occupational health and safety and compliance.
• Any decisions to require employees to work more than 3 days at the office are made by individual deputy ministers.

In June 2022, following the peak of the pandemic, the Clerk of the Privy Council outlined her expectations for a hybrid workforce and encouraged departments to experiment with models. Following this, departments and agencies tested different options to learn how a hybrid work model could best support our core purpose: serving Canadians.
Following the Clerk’s message, the Chief Human Resources Officer began collecting information from organizations on their hybrid testing. In total, three questionnaires were circulated: in Fall 2022, Spring 2023 and Fall 2023. Results from each questionnaire were shared with the Public Service Management Advisory Committee and the National Joint Council, a forum for Employer-Union engagement. The information collected from the initial questionnaire showed that most public servants were operating under a wide variety of hybrid models and there was a need for consistency in how hybrid work is applied.
In response, and further to engagement with Deputy Heads, the Secretary and the Chief Human Resources Officer of TBS announced on December 15, 2022, the Direction on prescribed presence in the workplace (the Direction) requiring all Core Public Administration employees eligible for a hybrid work arrangement to work on site at least 2–3 days each week, or 40–60% of their regular schedule as of March 31, 2023. At that time, the Direction included both exceptions and extensions to departments, granting them the ability to continue to deliver critical services, such as call centre functions, during the transition to the common hybrid work model.
Additional revisions were announced to the Direction on May 1, 2024, requiring a minimum three-day onsite presence beginning September 9, 2024, with executives expected to attend work onsite four days per week. Additionally, federal organizations that had previously received time-limited extensions and IT employees who were granted an exemption were required to begin implementing the minimum on site work requirement as of September 2024, with full implementation by September 2025.
Bargaining agents have continued to express their dissatisfaction with the updated Direction in a variety of ways, including launching unfair labour practice complaints, grievances and a judicial review of the decision taken by the Chief Human Resources Officer. Most recently, at the end of January 2025, the three largest bargaining agents (CAPE, PIPSC, and PSAC) launched a campaign called #RemoteWorks, which encourages all Canadians (not just public servants) to support the message that a one-size-fits-all approach to remote work is ineffective.
The Direction sets out the requirement for deputy heads to implement and monitor a minimum requirement of three days per week in the workplace for all public servants. Workplaces vary from one organization to the other. Deputy heads are to use discretion and adapt to their operational requirements. This includes in the application of any exceptions, which are explicitly outlined in the Direction, and monitoring compliance within their organizations.
The Direction includes an exception for Indigenous public servants, whose location is critical to their identity, to work from their communities. This enables opportunities for Indigenous employees to work in their communities, even when departments are not located in those communities.

In November 2024, the three largest bargaining agents (BAs) sent a joint letter to the President of the Treasury Board about Indigenous employee concerns, claiming that the Indigenous exception was being applied in combination with the 125km exception. The President responded to BAs on January 24, 2025, indicating that officials would follow up with implicated departments, and ensure appropriate support for interpretation of the Direction.
Directive on Telework
As part of negotiations with public service bargaining agents in 2023, the employer and certain bargaining agents signed letters of agreement on telework that sit outside of collective agreements.
Under the terms of the letters, joint departmental review panels were to be created within departments and agencies to address individual grievances where an employee is not satisfied with a decision made related to telework and hybrid work and chooses to refer the grievance to the joint departmental review panel. Each department is responsible for creating the panels and developing terms of reference with bargaining agents, with guidance provided by TBS.

Letters signed by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), the Association of Justice Council (AJC), and Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) included the provision of a Joint Consultation Committee (JCC) to support the review of the Directive on Telework. While CAPE withdrew from their JCC in response to the updated Direction, the PIPSC and PSAC completed the consultation process in fall (2024).
As a result of the JCC work and consultation and engagement with other key stakeholders, the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer implemented amendments to the Directive on Telework as of April 1, 2025, to better align with the hybrid work environment. The key changes to the Directive are as follows: clarification of the roles and responsibilities for managers and employees; stronger language to reinforce occupational health and safety; and, new considerations related to cyber security, material management, values and ethics, and conflict of interest for departments to assess and include as necessary.

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