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<\/div>\n?After becoming widespread due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote-work arrangements are here to stay in Canada, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based employment lawyer told attendees at a recent conference in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
“Now that we’re entering a post-pandemic phase, some workplace trends are sticking around. Working from home<\/a> and hybrid arrangements remain, while many employees are still resisting a regimented return to the office,” Cameron Wardell, an attorney with Mathews, Dinsdale and Clark, said at the 2023 HR Conference and Expo held by the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources of British Columbia and Yukon.<\/p>\n In a 2021 study by Statistics Canada<\/a>, 90 percent of respondents said they feel they are as productive\u2014or even more productive\u2014while working from home. Employees in Canada have said working from home has increased their work\/life flexibility due to the lack of commute time, higher job satisfaction, more quality time with their families and a reduced need for day care.<\/p>\n Employees in Canada generally do not have a legal right to work from home or another remote location, but there are some exceptions, Wardell noted. <\/p>\n “If there are human rights issues\u2014disability or family status\u2014an employer may have an obligation to accommodate, but only to the point of undue hardship,” he explained. Still, employers should “approach a remote or hybrid office proposal with a flexible mind.”<\/p>\n Canadian Federal Workers Strike for Wages, Remote Work<\/p>\n More than 155,000 federal government workers in Canada went on strike for over two weeks this spring for higher wages, with a request for remote-work arrangements as one of the main negotiating points. <\/p>\n According to the Public Service Alliance of Canada<\/a> union, the country’s government has agreed to review remote work on a case-by-case basis, as well as revise its Directive on Telework<\/a>.<\/p>\n Currently, the Canadian government has a hybrid-work policy that allows employees to work from home for up to three days a week, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n The changes could also be good news for nongovernment employees, since advances made by public-sector employees eventually trickle down to the private sector, Jean-Nicolas Reyt, an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.<\/a> <\/p>\n Occupational Health and Safety at a Home Office<\/p>\n