The Canada Revenue Agency is granting its managers limited flexibility in applying its four-day-in-office directive in July as the agency struggles with office space constraints.
In a statement, CRA spokesperson Etienne Biram confirmed that only “limited individual exceptions” will continue within the CRA “where appropriate”. Biram said the CRA is committed to fulfilling its duty to accommodate when needed.
“Managers are responsible for ensuring that their employees meet the requirement for on-site presence in accordance with the specification within their individual workplace arrangement agreements and for managing situations where an employee may not be able to be on-site as planned,” Biram added.
Biram added that the CRA is set to have workers return to the office for 80 per cent of their regular monthly schedule “subject to space considerations”.
Background of the Directive
The issue dates back to a June 4 CRA-wide town hall led by CRA senior leadership and Minister of National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne. At the meeting, according to Union of Taxation Employees president Marc Brière, Champagne said managers at the CRA would be given flexibility to apply the in-office directive.
At the town hall, workers also expressed concerns with the new in-office directive, but answers were wanting, Brière said.
“They’re mad because they’re being lied to, that they are being provided with lip service and no answers, which for them is absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable,” Brière said of the CRA workers following the town hall. “They want to know why, and the employer cannot even provide any answer.”
Space Constraints and Disparity
The federal government continues to be mum on the reasoning behind the four-day in-office directive, with the top official at the Treasury Board telling a House of Commons committee that the decision was a “philosophical choice”.
Brière has also been vocal about a lack of office space at the CRA. He previously said that more than one-third of the CRA’s buildings didn’t have enough space to accommodate an increased in-office presence while other buildings remained at capacity. It’s led to a disparity where some workers will return to the office four days a week, while other workers and regions will be limited in their in-office time due to space constraints. It’s a situation that he’s dubbed the “CRA lottery”.
After the town hall, Brière said there was frustration with the federal government’s leadership in responding to the new in-office directive.
“People are pissed off because a lot of people are losing the lottery: they’re going four days a week in July, while others will have an exemption for a year in their office because there’s not enough space,” Brière said.
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