Skip to main content
Home
Menu
Menu

Main Menu

    • About AMAPCEO
    • Governance & structure
    • Board of Directors
    • Equity
    • Your rights in AMAPCEO
    • Strategic Plan
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Collective Bargaining
    • Collective Agreements, Guides & Fact Sheets
    • Find a Workplace Representative
    • Dispute resolution
    • Health, Safety & Wellness
    • Find a Health & Safety Representative
    • Your Rights at Work
    • Request an Alternative Work Arrangement
    • Retiring from AMAPCEO
    • News & Campaigns
    • Events
    • Publications & Annual Reports
    • Learning
    • Unionize with AMAPCEO
    • Sign up as a member
    • Volunteer
    • Elections
    • Donations and Sponsorships
    • AMAPCEO Activist Awards
    • Bursary
    • ServicePlus
    • AMAPCEO Store
  • Get help
  • Login
"Public Health Ontario" and image of test tubes

Breadcrumbs

  1. Home
  2. Collective Agreement & Fact Sheets
  3. Alternative Work Arrangements
Public Health Ontario

Alternative Work Arrangements

Table of contents

Table of contents

  • Types of alternative work arrangements (AWAs)
  • Compressed Work Weeks
  • Flexible Hours
  • Telecommuting
  • How to request an alternative work arrangement
  • If your request is denied
  • If you have questions or need assistance

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 44.

Fact Sheet

Bargaining Unit: Public Health Ontario (PHO)

Collective Agreement Article: 44
First Published: July 10, 2020
Last Updated: November 23, 2020

Jump Menu Anchor: Types of alternative work arrangements (AWAs)

Types of alternative work arrangements (AWAs)

Jump Menu Anchor: Compressed Work Weeks

Compressed work weeks (CWWs)

You and your supervisor 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; then
  • 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; then
  • enjoy the 20th day off.
Jump Menu Anchor: Flexible Hours

Flexible hours

You and your supervisor can agree on alternative daily schedule when you start and finish work. These alternative 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).

Jump Menu Anchor: Telecommuting

Telecommuting

You and your supervisor 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 telecommuting is your home.

Jump Menu Anchor: How to request an alternative work arrangement

How to request an alternative work arrangement

1. Consider which alternative work arrangement(s) would work best for you.

2. Review the PHO policies, guidelines, and forms around AWAs before making your request. These documents can be found on the Employer’s SharePoint. Where there is a conflict between the Employer policy and your Collective Agreement, your Collective Agreement takes precedence.

3. Write a draft of your request. Consider the Employer’s policies, the operational viability of your request for your work unit, and tailor your request to your supervisor accordingly. Try to anticipate and address any issues or objections you think your supervisor may have.

4. Submit your request to your supervisor in writing.

When considering your AWA request, your supervisor must consider your request and its operational viability in good faith.

Jump Menu Anchor: If your request is denied

If your request is denied:

  • You have the option of approaching your supervisor to informally try and resolve the issue. Explain how you believe your request is operationally viable. Try to address your supervisor’s 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 supervisor.
  • If you believe your supervisor’s denial is not reasonable, you have the option of working with a Workplace Representative to:
    • file a Stage One dispute (a grievance); and/or
    • ask the PHO Union / Management Labour Relations Committee to discuss your denial.
Jump Menu Anchor: If you have questions or need assistance

If you have questions or need assistance

Please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative at Public Health Ontario, and get in touch by email.

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.

Learn More

An AMAPCEO Workplace Representative is helping a fellow member. They are both sitting at a laptop.
Get Help

Contact a Workplace Representative

A hand in a blue latex glove is holding a small beaker with a blue liquid. The person is wearing a lab coat and it is in a laboratory setting.
PHO Fact Sheets

See more Public Health Ontario Fact Sheets

Home
Suite 2310 – 1 Dundas Street West Toronto, Ontario Canada M5G1Z3
Phone: 1.888.262.7236
Fax: 1.416.340.6461
amapceo@amapceo.on.ca
View AMAPCEO Glossary

We would like to acknowledge Tkaronto, a Mohawk word meaning “the place in the water where the trees are standing.”

The AMAPCEO office is on the traditional unceded territory of Haudenosaunee speaking nations, including the Wendat, Seneca and Mohawk. These nations have been here since time immemorial and were in more recent times joined by the Mississaugas of the Credit.

More »
Copyright © 2025 AMAPCEO All Rights Reserved
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Bluesky
Follow us on Bluesky
Follow us on Youtube
Follow us on Youtube

Mobile Menu

  • About
    • About AMAPCEO
    • Governance & structure
    • Board of Directors
    • Equity
    • Your rights in AMAPCEO
    • Strategic Plan
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • In the workplace
    • Collective Bargaining
    • Collective Agreements, Guides & Fact Sheets
    • Find a Workplace Representative
    • Dispute resolution
    • Health, Safety & Wellness
    • Find a Health & Safety Representative
    • Your Rights at Work
    • Request an Alternative Work Arrangement
    • Retiring from AMAPCEO
  • News & Education
    • News & Campaigns
    • Events
    • Publications & Annual Reports
    • Learning
  • Get involved
    • Unionize with AMAPCEO
    • Sign up as a member
    • Volunteer
    • Elections
    • Donations and Sponsorships
    • AMAPCEO Activist Awards
    • Bursary
    • ServicePlus
    • AMAPCEO Store
  • Get help