PSAC employee takes union to human rights tribunal over remote work, discrimination

The union requires the employees at its headquarters office to be onsite at least two days a week despite fighting hybrid work arrangements for public servants.

Get the latest from Catherine Morrison straight to your inbox

Published Sep 19, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

A Public Service Alliance of Canada sign. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /Postmedia

An employee working for the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has filed a human rights complaint against the union, partly because it won’t let him do his job remotely.

In an application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, longtime PSAC employee Adrian Dumitru said he has experienced almost two decades of “discrimination and harassment,” culminating in the union denying his request for full-time remote work in 2022.

Article content

When many workers started to head back to offices that year, including the public servants PSAC represents, Dumitru and his colleagues were told they could no longer work from home full time.

“By the time I made my remote work request, the large majority of PSAC workers, me included, had been working remotely full time since March 23, 2020, both when mandated by the government and when not,” said Dumitru, who is a PSAC organizing program officer. “Individuals in both unionized and excluded positions were offered the possibility or have had their requests for full-time remote work approved.”

Since he first started working for the union in 2006-2007, Dumitru said he has also experienced “differential treatment, intimidation and threats of reprisal.”

“I was constantly othered, referred to as being from somewhere else, whether from another country or coming from another place in Canada,” said Dumitru, who is from Romania.

Dumitru said he spent the first seven years of his employment with the union working in “precarious” temporary positions, facing short-term contracts, low pay, and a lack of benefits and access to the pension plan.

Article content

Article content

Despite asking for full-time work, Dumitru said he faced roadblocks, noting that “it was clear that the PSAC hiring and retention practices for permanent positions were not favouring immigrants like me.” He said his physical, emotional and mental health has suffered as a result.

When it comes to PSAC’s remote work policy, the union requires the employees at its headquarters office to be onsite at least two days a week. PSAC’s latest remote work policy came into effect on Sept. 16, just a week after many public servants were required to work in office at least three days a week — a change that PSAC has fought tooth and nail with rallies and a legal challenge in Federal Court.

Unifor 2025, the union that represents PSAC workers, has criticized the union’s hybrid work arrangement, saying it “shows a shocking level of cognitive dissonance” considering the PSAC has positioned itself as a “defender of flexible telework” for federal public servants.

Since his request for accommodation was denied, Dumitru has filed three grievances, two of which were dismissed with the recommendation of “alternative dispute resolution” and another that was “placed in abeyance.”

Article content

In a response to Dumitru’s application at the human rights tribunal, the union denied that it had “engaged in any discriminatory conduct contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

The union said Dumitru “only provided vague answers” in an accommodation questionnaire and that he was told in August 2022 that his request for accommodation “would not be assessed any further due to his failure to cooperate or provide the requisite information throughout the accommodation process.”

PSAC said the application should be dismissed, or at least deferred until the grievances are concluded, adding that it was “based on the perceptions, suspicions, and beliefs” of Dumitru, with “no objective facts to support his beliefs.”

PSAC added that Dumitru has been allowed to work remotely on an “ad hoc basis.”

“The PSAC has advised the Applicant that although the medical information he provided does not demonstrate a requirement to work remotely, the PSAC remains willing to allow him to work a hybrid schedule pursuant to the Remote Work Policy,” the union said in its response.

Dumitru is seeking $50,000 in compensation, as well as non-monetary remedies like approval of his full-time work request and reinstatement of sick leave that was lost. He requested that the union undertake an independent review of its policies, procedures and decisions to “remove any and all barriers and adverse impacts and crease an inclusive work environment free of harassment and discrimination” as well as implement anti-oppression plans and training.

Article content

Dumitru’s allegations have not been proven at the human rights tribunal. In an interim decision issued in late August, human rights tribunal adjudicator Ivana Vaccaro deferred the consideration of Dumitru’s application “pending the conclusion of the grievances proceeding in this case.”

When reached for comment, PSAC said it couldn’t comment on an ongoing legal action. Dumitru didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.

Recommended from Editorial

1. 

   Rural community mayors ‘extremely concerned’ about the impacts of return-to-office

2. 

   Treasury Board will study public service productivity as 'bumps in the road' snag new remote work roll out

Article content