
Calling all UNE members in the National Capital Region!
Location: Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
Date: Thursday, August 8, 2024
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 ET
Please aim to arrive to the rally 15 minutes early if possible (11:45) and feel free to bring your UNE, PSAC and other union-related flags. Please also distribute this notice as widely as possible.
Following brief speeches at 12:00 at the main entrance of Les Terrasses de la Chaudière, we will be operating an information picket, passing out RT(N)O buttons and leaflets about the negative effects of return to office.
The goal is to broaden the discussion, and everyone is welcome. We would like to cover as many doors as possible to hand out buttons and literature.
Context: On May 1, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat mandated that all federal public service employees must be at the physical work site a minimum of 3 days per week, starting in September 2024. This generic policy continues to lack nuance in terms of an individual’s work realities and ignores the widely used technological innovations already in place.
Like many public service employees across Canada, members of PSAC-NCR successfully demonstrated their ability to conduct their duties remotely throughout the pandemic. We’ve seen how federal public service employees continue to deliver for Canadians with a hybrid work arrangement.
Numerous studies have proven the benefits of working remotely, including a more dynamic workforce, less time wasted commuting to the work site, a safer work environment and a smaller carbon footprint with fewer cars on the road.
Studies also show that many employees are more productive at home without office distractions and regularly work more hours because they have greater flexibility.
Since 2022, PSAC-NCR along with the PSAC National, the individual Components of PSAC, and our ally unions in the public service (CAPE, PIPSC, and ACFO, amongst many others) have strongly opposed the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s uniform approach to mandating employee presence at work site.
At this rally, we will show our dissatisfaction with the unexplained, uncosted and unplanned return to office. Detrimental effects include offices that often fail to meet safety requirements on air quality, mould, rodent and insect infestation. In addition, the employer has burdened tax payers and public service employees (who also pay taxes nationally, provincially and locally) with the cost to reinvigorate the downtown cores of Ottawa and Gatineau, as well as their transit systems. We say this is unacceptable!
PSAC-NCR is willing to have a discussion of rejuvenation of the city, but there must be a reason for it. Further enriching landlords and business owners while city services continue to collapse under the stress of underfunding are not the solution.
We hope to see you on the August 8 at Les Terrasses de la Chaudière !