Treasury Board Says ‘Not Possible’ to Know How Many Federal Employees With PSAC Membership Work From Home

PSAC workers and supporters picket in front of President of the Treasury Board Mona Fortier's office in Ottawa on April 21, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) says it does not know how many federal employees holding membership with one of the country’s largest unions work from home.

“With regard to the government’s remote work policy, the information is not systematically tracked in a centralized database,” wrote the Board in a submission to the Senate national finance committee on May 23.

“As such, it is not possible to determine the number of Public Service Alliance of Canada [PSAC] members working from home versus those working in the office.”

As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, TBS was following up on a question posed by Sen. Larry Smith on May 3. The senator had wanted to know the figures related to PSAC members when Treasury Board President Mona Fortier testified before the committee that day.

‘Virtual Work Is Voluntary’

The PSAC represents nearly 230,000 federal workers across provinces and territories, including those stationed overseas. On April 19, over 155,000 of its members working for TBS and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) set up picket lines at more than 250 locations across the country demanding “fair wages.” The strike ended on May 1 after a tentative agreement was reached between the union and the federal government.

The agreement covers not only the specifics for wages, but also the terms for remote work.

“New letter or agreement confirming that virtual work is voluntary, can be initiated by the employee, and that arrangements will be considered on a case-by-case basis,” said the PSAC in its letters to CRA and TBS members.

“Employee rights around telework arrangements will be protected through a grievance process.”

The Liberal government had directed some 287,978 federal employees to work from home days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.

On Dec. 15, 2022, Fortier announced at a press conference that federal public servants could continue to work from home “two to three days” per week, or “40 to 60 percent” of their regular schedule.

“We were in a situation where public servants had to work by necessity from home and, thereafter, started to be able to work up to three days from home because we’re developing that hybrid model,” said Fortier to the Senate committee on May 3.

“We are trying to get—and again I use this expression—the best of both worlds.”

‘No Comprehensive Data’

Fortier was responding to Smith, who said she made “concessions” about telework after being quoted for saying she wanted consistency across departments and that the return-to-office mandate was not an issue to be decided at the collective bargaining table.

“Do you have any numbers that you could provide to us in terms of how many people within PSAC are working at home versus the office?” Smith asked.

“We don’t necessarily have all the numbers from all the departments,” Fortier replied.

Smith said he asked because the “numbers of public servants are growing,” particularly those holding membership with PSAC.

“[W]hen you look at numbers growing and the costs associated with the number of people within that particular group, you start to ask what types of efficiencies we are getting out of that group.”

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told the Senate committee on May 2 that he could find no answers when trying to find out how many federal employees worked in the office.

“We didn’t send the government or department a formal request for information regarding telework, but we did ask questions informally to people at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and a number of other departments,” Giroux said.

“We were told that there were no comprehensive data on the number of employees teleworking across the public service.”

“A few ministers said publicly that there wasn’t any research to indicate whether or not public servants on telework were more or less productive than when they worked in the office,” he added.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.