The C.D. Howe Building in downtown Ottawa, where the office of the auditor general is located. Jan. 3, 2020. Jolson Lim/iPolitics

Some government departments are not heeding the Treasury Board’s directive to let employees work remotely or stay home as part of enhanced social distancing measures to help stem the spreading coronavirus, according to the head of one of the largest federal public service unions.

READ MORE: Treasury Board advising managers to let employees ‘telework’

Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, says managers at the National Research Council, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) are continuing to ask non-essential employees to show up for work amid the virus outbreak.

The union is raising concerns with the Treasury Board, the employer of the public service, but if no action is taken, it will take its case to the individual organizations.

“The message is not being filtered down,” she said in a phone interview.

While frontline border officers don’t have the option to work remotely or stay home, Daviau said many other CBSA employees can and should be asked to refrain from showing up at the office.

Meanwhile, she said a member in shipping and receiving at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada told her they were instructed to continue showing up to work to handle shipments of office supplies that are not related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Daviau also said it was particularly concerning to hear the National Research Council (NRC) wasn’t sending staff home after she heard an employee working out of the Montreal Road headquarters was being tested for COVID-19.

The NRC told iPolitics on Monday that “two potential cases of the novel coronavirus were identified among employees at an NRC facility” in Ottawa on March 12. The employees are being tested for the virus, the agency said, but the results “are not yet confirmed.”

On the date the possible cases were identified, the NRC said it advised employees in the affected building to “telework until a formal diagnosis is confirmed, and to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19.” Then on Sunday, the agency said it told employees to telework “until further notice, unless they are needed on the premises for critical tasks — which would be on an exceptional basis.”

“Employees who are required to remain on-site are asked to continue to self-monitor their health, and advise their local health authority and immediate supervisor if they feel ill,” the NRC said in a statement.

“Directing our employees to telework will allow the NRC to contribute to the collective effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 while continuing to deliver on our priorities, and support our private sector and government partners in advancing their business objectives.”

The Treasury Board on Sunday sent out a directive advising managers to consider “telework for all employees, at all work sites.” It also tasked federal organizations with determining “how to manage through exceptional situations that do not lend themselves to telework,” such as situations that require an on-site presence or that come with security limitations.

“It is essential our workforce abide by instructions from local health authorities. We’re working to give you the precise guidance you need as things continue to evolve rapidly,” the department posted on Twitter.

Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the largest federal public service union, said he was impressed with the directive issued by the Treasury Board on Sunday and the department’s constant communication with him on the COVID-19 situation.

“This is early days [but what the government is] doing so far is a very good start to for all Canadians, not just for the employees,” he said, citing government directions to avoid large gatherings.

“There’s going to be issues, we know that, but hopefully we can act quickly.”

Specifically, Aylward said there’s some confusion about who counts as “critical” and what employees should be working from home. However, he’s confident this will “get worked out” in the short term.

As for employees that must show up to work, Aylward said the union is making sure there are “measures are in place” to protect them when they enter their offices.

“We have to make sure that they’re being protected, [whether it’s] personal protective equipment or making sure social distancing is being respected … in the workplace,” he said, noting that in addition to frontline employees like CBSA officers, call centres are “another area of concern” because workers operate in “very close proximity” to one another.

After receiving the Treasury Board directive on Sunday, a spokesperson for Innovation, Science and Economic Development said the department distributed a message to all employees asking them to “telework until further notice, subject to critical operational requirements.”

While the department’s buildings remain open, Erika Zeroual said employees were asked to only be on site to pick up required equipment and other items from their offices, or for “exceptional situations,” like critical services requiring them to be on-site, security limitations and “other operational imperatives for which no reasonable alternative to working on site can be considered.”

“Managers were encouraged to reach out to employees who do not have mobile devices to ensure they are aware of this information, and managers and employees were asked to discuss planned work arrangements,” she said in a statement to iPolitics.

Global Affairs Canada said it issued a directive — that will go into effect at the end of day on Monday — instructing “as many employees as possible … to work from home until further notice.”

“The department’s management team will determine whose presence is required in the office and who should work off-site, both in Canada and abroad. Decisions will be made with the view to maintaining the department’s operations while acting responsibly to protect the health of our employees and our community,” Global Affairs spokesperson Barbara Harvey said in an email.

In a statement, CBSA spokesperson Ashley Lemire said the agency sent a message to all employees over the weekend advising them that “flexible and alternative work arrangements were being made possible for employees in line with their operational requirements and circumstances.”

On Monday, the agency provided another update to all employees on COVID-19 pandemic, which included a “directive on working remotely for positions that do not require an on-site presence,” she said.

“In accordance with the latest guidance provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, we are asking that CBSA employees and managers not working in critical program or service positions start to work from home (i.e. move to telework),” the directive reads. It went into effect immediately.

Daviau, though, said there’s simply “not enough capacity or VPN [virtual private network] connections” to allow all eligible public servants to work remotely, estimating the infrastructure in place could only handle “a quarter to a third” of employees.

While there are some workarounds that could enable more staff to work virtually, such as logging in to secured VPNs only to download necessary documents and using enabled mobile devices to access email, Daviau said these measures are realistically “only going to…keep the lights on.”

She’s crediting the government for “doing the right thing” by “triaging critical services” and making sure employees that provide those essential services still have telework access, while telling others they “should not be coming to the workplace.”

However, she said this messaging from the Treasury Board needs to get filtered down and appropriately applied.

READ MORE: Public servants haven’t been asked to work remotely yet, minister says

Last week, Digital Government Minister Joyce Murray told iPolitics that Shared Services Canada, the federal agency responsible for providing consolidate IT services, is part of an emergency response group working across the government tasked with ensuring public servants have the “tools necessary” to work from home.

*The story has been updated with comment from the Canadian Border Services Agency.

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