Federal employees now required to be in the office 3 days a week

As tens of thousands of public servants return to the office for a minimum of three days a week this week, public service unions continue to oppose the federal government's new hybrid work policy.

As tens of thousands of public servants return to the office for a minimum of three days a week this week, public service unions and some workers are expressing frustration with the federal government's new hybrid work policy.

"It's challenging. We were told there isn't enough desk space for everyone, so we're not quite sure how (it) is going to work," Leah Schmidt said while attending a union protest in downtown Ottawa Monday morning.

"We've heard the term hunger games thrown around quite a bit in terms of desk booking, which is not how I want to go into the workday."

Starting this week, federal employees in the core public service will be required to be in the office a minimum of three days a week, and executives will need to be on-site a minimum of four days.  

The new requirements apply to 282,152 employees in the core public service, with the government recommending that departments and agencies outside the core public service adopt a similar strategy.

However, some federal departments say they do not have enough space to accommodate workers in the office three days a week. Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) says all executives will be required on-site a minimum of four days a week, while all other employees must report to the office a minimum of two days per week.

"HICC has undertaken an accommodations review and confirmed that our offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) at 180 Kent St. and 427 Laurier Ave. do not currently have enough room for full implementation of the updated common hybrid work model, because the department has experienced significant growth to support our expanded mandate," HICC said.