The announcement of a return to the office three days a week for federal civil servants is not unanimous, while public service unions oppose this directive. According to a lawyer specializing in labor law, teleworking would, however, remain above all a privilege.
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“It’s anything but a fundamental right,” declared Me Claude Gravel in an interview with Quebec morning.
Teleworking is a new challenge for today’s employees. “Seven or eight years ago, we were fighting to have Friday afternoon off or to get a four-day week. The aspect of teleworking was clearly not on our radar screens,” he explains.
“Now we must remember that the rules of law, in principle, are that work is carried out at the workplace. This is the general rule. It is found as much in individual contracts as in collective actions.”
COVID-19 has accentuated this demand among employees. For the expert, it is obvious that once the pandemic is over, this remote working option is a privilege, rather than a right.
Mr. Gravel is, however, understanding: “it is certain that [les employés] wish to keep it, in order to stay at home, avoid traveling and having to run to take the children to daycare.”
A complex situation
In the case of federal civil servants, a letter of understanding offered 240,000 employees the benefit of a hybrid schedule. Their union has now claimed that granting the privilege of remote working should be “assessed on a case-by-case basis”.
With its hundreds of thousands of employees, the lawyer finds that it is far too demanding a task to impose on managers.
Me Gravel emphasizes that if the government asks state agents to go to the office three days a week from September 9, they will have no choice in complying.
“Eventually, the courts will have to decide,” he adds, “if necessary. The fact remains that such a decision by the State is legitimate, and within their rights.”
To see the full interview with Me Claude Gravel, watch the video above.
