The largest remote workforce in Canada has a new employment deal. What does it mean for the future of WFH?

Last weekend, a tentative deal was struck between the Public Service Alliance of Canada and their employer, the federal government, bringing to a close a 12-day strike.

At issue in the labour dispute was not only wages, but the future the largest remote workplace in Canada: would the government be able to force workers back to the office two or three days per week, or would federal civil servants continue to work from home indefinitely?

The deal struck around remote work was a compromise for both parties: the Treasury Board stepped back from its one-size-fits-all mandate that all workers be back in the office part-time, while the union stepped back from its desire to see remote work enshrined in the contract. What the two sides settled on was something more flexible.

“The two sides drafted an agreement that remote requests will be assessed individually by managers, in writing,” writes public service expert Katherine May. “Requests that are denied will go to a joint union-employer panel for review, but they cannot be grieved.”

Both parties seem to have come away from the bargaining table relatively content with what they landed on, at least officially (the deal itself will need to be ratified by the membership and may encounter hurdles there).

The union claimed the agreement would give members access to more protections and the right to hammer out a work-from-home arrangement with their manager. Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, said the agreement supports “fairness, equity and modernization,” and will “encourage the union and manager to discuss individual issues that could touch culture or management issues.”

So, if you were hoping for a decisive answer to remote work going forward, you might be disappointed; the deal was more of a baby-steps-forward than a great leap, suggesting that we’re still a long way from a standard hybrid workplace model throughout the whole economy.

But some observers of this deal suggest that it inches everyone a little bit closer to a new normal. “The tentative agreement reached with the largest group of strikers contains important steps toward an ongoing work-from-home protocol,” write Graham Lowe, Karen Hughes and Jim Stanford of the Future of Work Institute.

“The strike will be a defining moment in the evolution of work-from-home practices,” they continued. “The tentative deal, by codifying specific practices in a labour contract, confirms that work-from-home arrangements will be an essential ingredient in workplace relations well into the future.”

Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.