Union files dispute against OPS Employer over its silence on remote work requests

AMAPCEO, the union representing more than 16,500 members in the Ontario Public Service (OPS), has filed another union-wide dispute with the OPS Employer—this time, over its unfair and unreasonable delay processing thousands of requests for remote and hybrid work. 

Since mid-August, more than 6,000 AMAPCEO members in the OPS—a third of the union’s membership—have requested to work at least one day a week from a remote location. Many made their requests anticipating the October 20 transition date to a four-day in-office “standard” set by the OPS Employer. 

Virtually none of the requests have been processed. 

The right to request these arrangements, and have them considered individually and in good faith, is enshrined in the AMAPCEO–OPS Collective Agreement. 

“Members fiercely defended their rights to request remote work during the last round of collective bargaining,” AMAPCEO President & CEO Dave Bulmer said. “Leaving members hanging, without a response, for months, is unreasonable and a clear violation of our contract.”

“It’s also disrespectful to the thousands of professionals who go above and beyond working for the people of Ontario—from anywhere,” Bulmer said. “Remote work works—for employees, for communities, for the workplace, and for taxpayers.” 

In its dispute, filed Thursday, the union notes that delay is systemic and OPS-wide, which indicates centralized direction. “It is an abuse of management rights and completely unreasonable to announce a transition date for in office attendance, to note that members have Article 47 collective agreement rights to make requests and then to not respond to the requests in advance of the transition date,” the union says in its dispute. 

In August, the OPS Employer announced it would implement a four-day in-office “standard” effective October 20, and five-days starting January 5. The announcement effectively ended its three-and-a-half year commitment to hybrid work and unnecessarily confusing a remote work process that’s worked well for all parties for more than 15 years. 

AMAPCEO responded by mobilizing thousands of members to request remote work alternative work arrangements, sign a 14,000-signature petition demanding the government reverse course, and attend a 1,000-member strong rally to send a message to the Secretary of Cabinet. 

The union has made the return-to-office edict the priority at the AMAPCEO–Central Employee Relations Committee table and at each of the AMAPCEO–Ministry Employee Relations Tables, advocating directly to the Employer. It has seconded a team of Workplace Representatives to provide dedicated support to members pursuing formal individual disputes over alternative work arrangement delays and denials. And it has launched the Remote Work Works campaign to promote the many benefits of remote and hybrid work in the public interest. 

Thursday’s union-wide dispute over remote work request review delays is the latest in a string of association disputes or formal complaints of unfair labour practices that the union has launched against the OPS Employer over its return-to-office edict. 

The union is holding the OPS Employer to account over a host of OPS-wide violations of the Collective Agreement, including its return-to-office notice period, its memo to staff in August, its ban on union-branded virtual backgrounds, and its “Guidance for Leaders” on remote work request reviews. 

The disputes are ongoing.

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