Public service union's court challenge of return-to-office order will proceed

A Federal Court judge has ordered a full hearing be held in the Public Service Alliance of Canada's challenge to the federal government's return-to-office directive.

On Thursday, Justice Glennys L. McVeigh dismissed the federal government's attempts to quash or halt the challenge, saying both sides needed to argue the matter based on a full record.

In May, the federal government issued a directive requiring its workers to come into the office for a minimum of three days a week, or 60 per cent of their regular weekly or monthly schedules. The directive comes into force Sept. 9.

Within a week of the May announcement, PSAC launched a policy grievance, two complaints with the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, and an application for a judicial review in Federal Court.

The federal government tried to quash the court challenge, or have it stayed until all the other challenges were resolved. In a court filing last month, the government argued "courts should not intervene in employment disputes before the processes provided for have been exhausted."

But the Federal Court sided with the union in allowing the court case to proceed to a full hearing.

"As the moving party with the burden of proof, the Attorney General was responsible for presenting a 'knockout punch' argument that addressed all of PSAC's submissions," McVeigh wrote in her decision, adding the government had not met said burden.

"Although I am choosing not to exercise my discretion to strike the application at this stage, this decision should not be interpreted as an endorsement of PSAC's arguments. I simply conclude that the parties must argue this matter based on a full record."

Still, the union is hailing the decision.

"I think this is a very important win for workers' rights and the fight against the government's arbitrary telework mandate," PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa told CBC News, referring to the court decision.

"We don't even know why they made this decision. We've heard words around collaboration and office culture, but there's no data. There's no information as to why they made the decision. So this is what this hearing, eventually when we have our day in court, will allow us to attain."

DeSousa said the union ultimately wants remote work arrangements to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. 

Complicating the return-to-work directive, DeSousa said, is that some PSAC members were offered, and accepted, government jobs that aren't located near where they lived.

PSAC lacks data on how many of its members are in such a situation, deferring to the government for those hiring numbers.