Case-by-case evaluation of remote work vulnerable to managerial discretion

Office workers adopted remote work on a massive scale during the pandemic, and many of them only want to return to the office on a limited basis. This was a major issue in the spring 2023 strike by the Public Service Alliance of Canada. In the union’s new contract, remote work requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This makes an amount of sense, according to Desautels Prof. Jean-Nicolas Reyt. "Some jobs do require you to be on-site, but at the end of the day, it has to be case-by-case," Reyt told CBC News. "But if that means a manager has a personal opinion about giving remote work, that is an issue. Because we already know that managers typically are against remote work because it makes their job different from what they're used to."