Mr. Speaker, it is an honour tonight to stand and to be able to see whether I can get some further clarification around a question I recently asked in order to be able to provide some clarification for federal workers across the country. I recently stood to speak to whether the government will be repealing the “one size fits none”, which is what it is being called, return-to-office mandate.
We know that the arbitrary mandate to return to the office three days a week blindsided federal workers. Superficially, it does not sound like a problem. Why would it be a lot to ask to ask people to go back to work three days a week? I need to really clarify what the issues are.
The issue is that it happened without due consultation with the exact people who are impacted by the decision. Workers across Canada were being told that they needed to return to work now three days a week, and there was not a bigger plan put in place. There was not a bigger discussion on how this would impact the workers we rely on to provide essential services across Canada.
I have heard from hundreds of concerned workers across the country in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, there are so many who are impacted by the decision. One example I want to bring to the attention of the House is that of a worker in my riding who came up to me to talk about his experience since the mandate was put in place. He shared with me that he was hired with flexible work arrangements, his productivity was great and he was doing important work for our country, but the return-to-work mandate has now placed him in a position where he needs to share a cubicle with other workers.
The workers are rotating through the cubicle. He has to put his items into a locker at the end of the day. He has to go to a designated room in order to make phone calls. Of course, he is making phone calls all day long. His productivity has decreased. His morale has decreased in his work. It is just so inefficient to ask a worker to go back to work and to sit in a seat when there is not even a seat there for them.
That is not the only issue I am hearing about from workers across Canada. Others were hired under the agreement that they would have flexible work arrangements. If we truly want to have representation in our federal workplaces, we need to be having these conversations.
For example, people have talked to me about an indigenous woman who lives in a rural community. She has been doing great work in what she is doing, but now she has been told she has to return to work. However, it is not possible for her to return to the office because the travel takes too long. She was hired under the assumption that she would be working in a hybrid model, and she is now being told that that this is no longer the case.
Parents and parents-to-be were told that they would have flexible work arrangements, and now, with no notice, they are being told they have to return to work. We all know how long the child care lists are across Canada. It is unfair to ask parents to suddenly change their entire working conditions to accommodate child care when there is no child care available to them because they were not given the notice needed to make those arrangements.
Employee morale is low. We know that it has just been so disheartening for people who are working in positions with flexible arrangements to feel as if they are being monitored on a daily basis. It is just incredibly challenging for workers.
My question to which I wanted to hear the answer from the government when I previously rose in the House is this: Will the government be repealing the decision, working alongside federal employees to make sure that there are arrangements to keep people in vital roles?