Your time is precious. That’s why AMAPCEO has negotiated strong language in your Collective Agreement to put you in more control of your time. You may consider entering into an agreement with your Employer allowing you to use compressed work weeks, flexible hours, and telecommuting.
These alternative work arrangements can help you avoid commuting during peak times, spend more time with loved ones, tend to dependent care needs, or better balance your work/life commitments.
The ability to collectively negotiate the terms and conditions of your employment, including alternatives to traditional work arrangements, is an important advantage of being a unionized professional.
Your Collective Agreement defines the parameters of such arrangements in Article 47.
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Learn more about your rights to request an alternative work arrangement, how to submit your request, and what to do if your request is denied.
Collective Agreement Article: 47
First Published: August 5, 2020
Last Updated: September 26, 2025
Types of alternative work arrangements (AWAs)
An alternative work arrangement (AWA) can be established between your manager (or director) and you individually, or as a group of employees in the same unit.
Compressed work weeks (CWWs)
You and your manager can agree for you to work a compressed work week (CWW) schedule. In a CWW, you work additional time each day, which will accumulate to earn you a day off work on a regular cycle.
For example, with a three-week CWW schedule, you would:
- work an extra 31 minutes each day for 14 working days and enjoy the 15th day off.
Or with a four-week CWW schedule, you would:
- work an extra 23 minutes each day for 19 working days and enjoy the 20th day off.
Flexible hours
You and your manager can agree on a flexible or alternative daily schedule, using the template agreement in the appendices of your Collective Agreement. These alternative start and end times can be consistent across each workday or vary for different days of the week.
Your total number of hours worked each week must still equal the number of hours in a regular work week (or the hours in your compressed work week, if you are also using that option).
Remote work (telecommuting or telework)
You and your director can agree for you to work from an alternate worksite for an agreed-upon number or hours or days per week.
The most typical location for working remotely is your home.
Other
Other types of alternative work arrangements include job sharing, regular part-time, and pre-retirement part-time. More details on these can be found in your Employer’s “Flex Work Program Guide” on InsideOPS.
How to request an alternative work arrangement
1. Consider which alternative work arrangement(s) would work best for you.
2. Review the OPS policies, guidelines, and forms around AWAs before making your request. These documents can be found on the Employer’s InsideOPS intranet. Where there is a conflict between the Employer policy and your Collective Agreement, your Collective Agreement takes precedence.
3. Request your alternative work arrangement to your manager (while telework agreements need the approval of your director, the OPS Employer has stated that requests should still go to your manager).
- Consider the Employer’s policies, the operational viability of your request for your work unit, and tailor your request accordingly.
- Try to anticipate and address any issues or objections you think your manager and/or director may have.
If your request is for a compressed work week:
- Use AMAPCEO's online tool to submit your request to your manager. The tool will automatically generate your draft agreement and send it to you and your manager.
If your request is for remote work:
- First, complete the OPS Employer’s Remote Work Alternative Work Arrangement Request Form, and submit it via email to your manager. The form is available on InsideOPS.
- Then, use AMAPCEO’s online tool to submit your request to your director. The tool will automatically generate your draft agreement and send it to you and your manager and director.
4. Submit your request to your manager and/or director in writing.
- If you used the AMAPCEO online tool, it will do so for you automatically.
- If you chose not to use AMAPCEO’s online tool, please CC awa@amapceo.on.ca on your email to your manager.
5. When considering your AWA request, your manager and/or director must consider your request and its operational viability in good faith.
6. Once your manager and/or director has agreed to an alternative work arrangement, a formal agreement with the details will need to be established.
- If you used our online tool to generate your request, your manager and/or director will have received your draft agreement(s) to sign and send back to you.
- If you need to change your request, you can use our online tool to submit a new request and draft agreement(s) with the revised details.
- Otherwise, you or your Employer should draft the appropriate alternative work arrangement agreements for you to sign. The agreements must follow the appropriate standardized templates in included in the appendices of your Collective Agreement.
7. Submit your arrangement agreement to AMAPCEO at awa@amapceo.on.ca. Each agreement must be signed off on by the AMAPCEO office.
If you haven't heard back from your manager or director:
Response times from your manager or director my vary between units and branches.
Follow up with them by email a few weeks after your request. You don’t need to resend your original request or provide more details.
In your email:
Ask for a written decision on your remote work request and include the date you initially made your request.
Ask for a response from your manager or director within two or three weeks and include the date by which you expect a reply from them.
Include a note that if you don’t receive a response by then, you will consider your request denied.
If your request is denied:
- You have the option of approaching your manager or director to informally try and resolve the issue. Explain how you believe your request is operationally viable. Try to address their objections. Be persistent. You may wish to ask for help from an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative with this.
- If your request is still denied, request this denial and rationale in writing from your manager or director.
- If you believe your manager or director’s denial is not reasonable, you have the option of working with a Workplace Representative to request to file a formal dispute (a grievance).
- If your denied request was for telework, please complete the Remote Work Issue Intake Form below and include it when contacting a Workplace Representative.
AMAPCEO has a quick and easy form to help get you started on your request for a Compressed Work Week or to work remotely. Fill in the information, and it will send your request to your manager and/or director.
Frequently asked questions
I submitted my remote work request using AMAPCEO's online tool. Now that the Employer has a form of their own, what does this mean for my original request?
If you used AMAPCEO's online tool to make your request prior to Thursday, September 25, 2025:
You are not required to use the Employer's form.
However, if the Employer asks you to use the Employer's form, you can choose to do so, and flag the earlier request for your manager).
Your request must be considered by the Employer in good faith. Delaying a decision on a request made before this date is a violation of the Collective Agreement and can be disputed as a denial.
Please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative if you find yourself in this situation.
If you used AMAPCEO's online tool to make your request after Thursday, September 25, 2025, and did not use the Employer's form:
You are required to use the Employer's form as well.
I have an existing remote work agreement in place that will expire soon. What should I do?
Submit a request to renew your agreement using the Employer’s online form and through the AMAPCEO online form.
If you have an existing agreement in place and have not received a denial in response to a renewal request, you can continue to follow your existing agreement.
Can I still use AMAPCEO’s online AWA request form to ask for a new remote work arrangement or to renew an existing one even if the Employer says I must use their remote work request form?
Yes, we encourage you to still use our online form in addition to the Employer’s form. Our form, as opposed to the Employer’s, generates the negotiated remote work agreement for sign off. Submitting our form also allows us to track your request and follow up with you on your request.
If you choose to not complete AMAPCEO’s online form in addition to the Employer’s, please CC awa@amapceo.on.ca on your email to your manager with the Employer’s form attached.
I submitted a request for remote work ages ago and still don’t have a response. What should I do?
Please see "If you haven't heard back from your manager or director," above.
What other options do I have aside from pursuing a remote work arrangement or accommodation to assist me with my care obligations?
- Managers have the ability to approve compressed work week and flexible work hour arrangements which can be requested in addition to or instead of remote work requests.
- Both types of AWAs can modify your start and end times to allow you to be available elsewhere when needed. See above sections on “CWWs” and “Flexible Hours” for more information.
What is the difference between an AWA and a workplace accommodation?
- You have the right to request an alternative work arrangement through Article 47 of the AMAPCEO–OPS Collective Agreement. The OPS Employer has an obligation to consider in good faith both the member’s request and the operational viability of the AWA for the work site.
Workplace accommodations are afforded to employees through the Ontario Human Rights Code. An employee must first establish that they have an accommodation need on the basis of a Code-protected ground (e.g., disability or family status). The Employer then has a legal duty to accommodate the employee up to the point of undue hardship. If seeking a health accommodation, the Employer is in their right to request health information to assess your request. Further, employees are not entitled to their preferred accommodation, simply an appropriate one. The initial request for a medical accommodation should be made to your manager.
While members may be asking for AWAs for reasons associated with a Code-protected ground (e.g., the commute aggravates my arthritis, I need to be home early on certain days because I am the only one who can pick up my child at that time), this doesn’t mean the Employer should automatically assess the requests under the legal framework of the duty to accommodate. The Employer should not request additional health information to support an AWA request under Article 47.
Learn more about workplace accommodations on the AMAPCEO OPS Fact Sheet.
To determine if an AWA or workplace accommodation is right for your circumstances, contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative to discuss options.
My director is pushing me to pursue a health or family status accommodation instead of considering my remote work request, what should I do?
- Immediately contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative to discuss your situation.
What information should I include in my remote work request?
The Employer cannot require you to demonstrate a particular need for remote work or provide a rationale for your AWA request to be approved. However, if you have one, this should be a relevant factor in their consideration of your request.
If you have one and you feel comfortable providing it to your manager or director, you can do so.
Consider the Employer’s policies, the operational viability of your request for your work unit, and tailor your request accordingly. Try to anticipate and address any issues or objections you think your manager and/or director may have.
If your manager or director is telling your request will be denied if you cannot demonstrate an exceptional need, they are incorrect. Contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative immediately.
My branch doesn’t have a director. What should I do?
- Submit your request to your manager.
My request has been denied. What do I do?
- Please see "If your request has been denied," above.
My manager has told me that I am required to complete and submit a “health and safety telework checklist” in order for my AWA telework request to be considered. Is this new? Do I have to do it?
- Completion and submission of the Health and Safety Telework checklist has always been required as part of an AWA telework arrangement.
- Should you have questions about it or need help completing it, please reach out to an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative.
Can I use an AMAPCEO Zoom or Teams background or profile picture on my work computer?
If you are using an AMAPCEO virtual background and are directly asked by your manager to remove it, you should do so. We also encourage you to contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative near you right away with the details of your experience.
Learn more about the dispute that AMAPCEO is filing over your right to display virtual backgrounds.
If you have questions or need assistance
Please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative near you. They do not have to be in your Ministry.
Workplace Representatives are trained union members who have volunteered to confidentially assist members like you in the workplace. They should be your first point of contact in seeking information and representation with an issue at work.
Your Workplace Representative may ask you to use the union’s secure web-based system, RADAR, to provide details about your situation. RADAR will help you and your Workplace Representative keep track of things without the privacy concerns that could come from using the Employer’s email system.
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