Ontario promises 'flexibility' for civil servants on FIFA game days as unions call return-to-office policy confusing

On Wednesday, at a news conference that was supposed to be about something else, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy was asked about the province's civil servants and the FIFA World Cup. His answer: there will be "flexibility." The province, he said, will make allowances for individual workers on game days, June 12 and June 26, even though the rule says everyone is to be in the office five days a week.

Bethlenfalvy is about to take over the cabinet portfolio that oversees the return-to-office policy from outgoing minister Caroline Mulroney, a handover set for later this week. He described the game-day leeway as one example of something the government has always allowed. "There's flexibility, there's allowance for circumstances and this is an example of one of those accommodations," he said, adding that the government would keep moving forward.

The policy has a short but contentious history. Hybrid arrangements had been in place since April 2022, when provincial employees were required to be in the office at least three days a week. Last August, Mulroney announced that the roughly 60,000 employees of the public service and of provincial agencies, boards and commissions would have to raise attendance to four days a week starting Oct. 20, 2025, then move to full-time office hours on Jan. 5. Workers and their unions have been angry since, arguing that hybrid work proved itself both before and during the pandemic.

Bethlenfalvy gave no sign the province plans to reverse course. In-person work, he said, allows collaboration and helps young employees learn problem solving and benefit from mentorship. "I think we're all aligned that this is something we're going to continue to support going forward," he said.

The unions say the World Cup has exposed how the policy is being handled. The head of AMAPCEO, which represents about 17,000 professional, administrative and supervisory employees in the Ontario Public Service, says the government has sent conflicting signals. Last week, a memo obtained by CBC News, sent only to managers, said staff could shift their hours with an earlier start or later finish, or take a vacation day, to avoid the expected crowds on roads and transit. In later statements to media, the government said there would be some room for working from home on game days, and that managers "can approve ad hoc, occasional or temporary remote work requests to provide short-term flexibility."

AMAPCEO's Bulmer said a rigid reading of the policy, followed by muddled communication about exemptions, is causing problems. The union's broader point, he said, is that cyclical disruptions will keep arising, and "a blanket policy against remote work just doesn't make sense in an urban centre like Toronto."

JP Hornick, president of OPSEU, which represents roughly half the Ontario Public Service workforce, welcomed Bethlenfalvy's statement but called the policy "ill thought-out" from the start. "Flexible work arrangements need to exist in the Ontario Public Service, because they have existed since the pandemic," she said.

Bulmer described the FIFA confusion as the latest stumble. He says members report space shortages because the government has not leased new space for the full-time return: multiple people sharing a boardroom, no privacy, and buildings in disrepair. The government maintains there are few space problems and that it largely has enough room for returning staff.

There is also a backlog. About 5,000 AMAPCEO members have asked for alternative work arrangements that would let them work from home. Around 250 have received answers, roughly eight months after filing, and most of those were rejections, Bulmer said. For people who "think their way through their day," he said, the situation is discouraging and demoralizing.

What to watch now is whether Bethlenfalvy, once he formally takes the file, approaches the policy any differently, and whether the unions' push for permanent flexible arrangements gains any ground beyond the two game days.