More than 25 per cent of ESDC employees broke return-to-office rules

The department's human resources branch was among the worst offenders.

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Published Jan 06, 2025  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Government of Canada building in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA NETWORK

At the end of September, a few weeks after the federal government adopted new return-to-office rules, only 73 per cent of employees at the largest department in the core public service were following them, according to internal documents.

Detailed compliance reports and internal emails, obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through an access-to-information request, show that 81 per cent of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) workers were compliant with the new requirements when they came into effect on the week of Sept. 9. However, by the end of the month, that compliance rate had dropped to 73 per cent. By the week of Oct. 28, it stood at 76 per cent.

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During the first week of the new regime, ESDC saw a range of compliance rates in its various branches, from 64 per cent to 94 per cent. The department’s human resources branch was the worst offender that week with just 67 per cent of its employees compliant.

In an email to co-workers at the end of September, assistant deputy minister Réa McKay said she was “very concerned” about the compliance rate within the branch.

“Looks like our compliance is not only the lowest, but it is declining,” McKay said.

On Oct. 18, McKay sent another email, saying that “we are going up, but still not where we want to be.” She said some areas required “reminders and a push to ensure compliance.”

The human resources branch saw its compliance rate sink to 56 per cent on the week of Sept. 30 before it rose up to 69 per cent in the last week of October, a performance that still put it among the worst performing branches. At that time, the rest of the branches’ compliance rates ranged from 63 per cent to 98 per cent.

One of ESDC’s labour branches had the highest compliance rate.

ESDC spokesperson Mila Roy said said in an emailed statement that managers are responsible for knowing where their employees are working.

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“ESDC has reinforced with its managers their responsibility to ensure that employees who directly report to them are compliant with the in-person workplace attendance requirements,” she said.

The department’s chief data officer branch compiled the reports, which analyzed the compliance of hybrid employees using information collected by a system that “captures daily interactions between ESDC employees and their ESDC devices.”

The reports said that “compliance results may be lower over the coming months as the organization addresses return to office challenges” like “over-subscribed sites.”

ESDC, which had just over 39,000 employees in 2024, had a target compliance rate of 85 per cent or higher. Internal documents showed the 15 per cent difference between the goal and total compliance accounted for “factors not captured in our data sources and for gaps where no department-wide data is available.” As of the end of October, ESDC had not hit its target since the new rules came into effect.

“Compliance rates are being closely monitored and progress continues to be made as we work to achieve the expected compliance numbers in the new year,” Roy said. 

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Service Canada within the Government Services offices at Ottawa City Hall. Photo by Errol McGihon /POSTMEDIA

Since early September, the federal government has required many public servants to be in the office at least three days a week. Executives have been required to be in the office for at least four days a week.

While the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is responsible for enforcing the new return-to-office rules, the Ottawa Citizen has reported that only 70.82 per cent of its workers followed the new rules in September.

A Treasury Board guide for deputy heads and departmental heads of human resources shared with the Ottawa Citizen in August said that, when an employee deliberately failed to comply with a telework agreement, managers should consult with their labour relations experts and consider applying “relevant and progressive discipline” to correct the behaviour.

It said typical steps included verbal reprimand, written reprimand, suspension without pay of escalating duration and termination of employment, but they could be taken in varying orders.

Roy said that ESDC employees’ onsite attendance is monitored through “a custom dashboard that uses work arrangement data from internal human resources software and login data from ESDC devices on the various networks (for example, the department’s virtual private network).”

“The dashboard is not a substitute for managers fulfilling their management responsibilities,” she said.

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