Ontario orders its public servants back to office full time, saying it reflects ‘current workforce landscape’

Ontario Premier Ford says he looks forward to having public servants back in office full time. Natalie Johnson has the details.

More than 60,000 Ontario Public Service workers will be required to return to the office full time starting in January 2026, the province announced Thursday.

Minister Caroline Mulroney, who serves as the president of the Treasury Board, made the announcement in a news release and said the transition “represents the current workforce landscape in the province.”

Ontario Public Service workers had previously been mandated to work from the office a minimum of three days a week. The province said that, based on the nature of their work, over half of all public servants are already required to attend the office in-person full time.

“As the government delivers on our plan to protect Ontario, we will continue to drive public service excellence for the people of Ontario. Effective January 5, 2026, the Ontario Public Service and its provincial agencies, boards and commission public bodies will return to the office full time,” Mulroney wrote.

Employees currently working in the office three days a week will need to increase their in-person attendance to four days a week starting on Oct. 20, before remote work comes to an end in January, the province said.

Mulroney said that the move is an “important step” that supports the government’s efforts to build a “more competitive, resilient and self-reliant Ontario.”

Ontario’s public servants were first called back to the office for a minimum commitment of three days per week back in 2022. At that time, roughly half of them had been working remotely for part, or all, of the two years that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, federal employees in the core public service were called back to the office for a minimum of three days a week.

Rogers Communications Inc. joined a number of other companies in the private sector last month in asking its corporate employees to return to the office. The telecom company is now requiring workers to be in the office four days a week as of October and five days a week starting in February.

TD Bank, RBC, and Scotiabank have also mandated a four-day in-office work week starting in September.

‘Everyone needs to go back to work’

Speaking to reporters about the decision at an unrelated news conference on Thursday morning, Premier Doug Ford said he believes workers are “more productive” in the office.

“How do you mentor someone over a phone? You can’t. You’ve got to look at them eye-to-eye, over the water cooler, wherever, train them, camaraderie. Plus, the economy too,” he said, adding that businesses in Toronto’s financial district have suffered from remote work policies.

“I’ll just use downtown Toronto, for example, the PATH. You know there’s hardworking entrepreneurs that basically their businesses just died when they weren’t seeing the flow of traffic,” he said.

Ford underscored the decision by the big banks and Rogers to force workers back to the office five days a week did not influence the timing of the province’s decision.

“I understand all the companies I’ve talked to, from the banks to the insurance companies, to everyone else, everyone needs to go back to work,” he said.

“I think it is just time. Everyone is kind of saying, ‘It’s time to get back to work,’” the premier said.

“I’m very grateful for the work they do. We have the best public service in Canada and I appreciate the work they do everyday.”

Workers’ union head ‘incensed’

In a statement released following the announcement, Dave Bulmer, the president and CEO of AMAPCEO, the union which represents thousands of Ontario public servants, said he was “incensed” by the news.

“The Ontario Public Service (OPS) Employer was hellbent on removing your right to remote work in the last two rounds of bargaining. The Secretary of Cabinet wants unilateral control over where, and when, you work. AMAPCEO successfully fought back and preserved your ability to request an alternative work agreement, ensure it’s considered fairly, and dispute any denials,” he said, pointing to a new 3-year tentative agreement that was reached with the province in July.

“AMAPCEO is going to continue to fight for flexibility for members who want it and stop the Secretary from dragging Ontario’s hardworking public service back to the Stone Age.”

Meanwhile, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) called on the province to halt its return-to-office plan and engage in a meaningful dialogue with workers’ unions.

OPSEU President JP Hornick called the policy a “slap in the face.”

“Decisions like this about our members’ working conditions should be made in consultation with those workers, not through public announcements,” Hornick said.

OPSEU shared that its Central Employee Relations Committee (CERC), which represents OPS workers, was given less than an hour’s notice before the public announcement.

“This is a top-down decision made without transparency, without negotiation, and without any evidence that it will improve service to the people of Ontario,” Amanda Usher, the chair of OPS Unified CERC, said in a statement.

She criticized the province’s blanket approach, which she said ignored the diversity of OPS workplaces, job functions and individual needs.

“Many OPS workers have built their lives around the flexibility of hybrid work, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, disabilities, or long commutes,” Usher said.