Ford was right to order public sector workers back to office

Ontario Premier Doug Ford ordered the province’s 60,000 public servants back to the office four days a week. Photo by Mike Hensen/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network files

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has done what too many timid CEOs refuse to do: he ordered the province’s 60,000 public servants back to the office. Four days a week. No excuses.

Predictably, the public sector unions are howling. But the law — and common sense — is on Ford’s side.

The myth of permanent remote work

Remote work was never a contractual right. It was a temporary COVID-19 emergency measure that became an accommodation that employees have clung to as though it were enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is not. Unless your contract explicitly guarantees remote work, your employer can recall