Minister open to exploring modified work setups for N.S. civil servants post-COVID

Nova Scotia's minister responsible for the Public Service Commission says he's keeping an open mind about the potential of permanently modified work arrangements for members of the civil service in a post-COVID world.

"People working from home has, in many cases, produced a positive level of productivity that we're really excited about," Ben Jessome recently told reporters.

For the last year thousands of people have navigated the shift from working in an office to working at home. As public health restrictions have eased and some level of normalcy has returned, Jessome said about 85 per cent of the provincial public workforce is to some extent back in their office location.

While there are always going to be jobs that require people to be on site, meeting face-to-face with others, Jessome said the issue has been on the radar of his office for a while.

"The flexible work environment is something that the Public Service Commission has been working on prior to COVID, so those conversations have been reinforced and heightened, certainly, with the pandemic in many ways."

Union ready to talk

Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union president Jason MacLean said he's pleased to hear Jessome's position.

The union is prepared to collaborate on exploring the idea, but MacLean said it's his hope that if there is a change it can be uniform, rather than every office using a different approach. With upcoming bargaining talks, MacLean said that could be a good place to have the conversation.

"Everyone works within policies and everybody works within the rules of the workplace, and so to have them the same across the board is very important and it will make it more productive for everybody," he said.

"I think that's what government has learned and I applaud them on taking a look at this and we would love to help them out at it."

MacLean said the pandemic has helped put to rest the notion that allowing people to work from home would lead to widespread drops in productivity or abuses of the system. Removing the need to travel to and from an office or between meetings frees up more time, he said.

If anything, said MacLean, it's sometimes important to remind people working from home to take breaks from time to time to help them separate their work space from their home.

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