Some federal workers on P.E.I. sent to work at home, others stay

Some federal government workers on P.E.I. were sent home Monday, part of Canada's response to COVID-19.

That includes most of the 1,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Charlottetown, as well as some of the 1,100 taxation employees in Summerside and 150 in Charlottetown.

"I was told that employees were to go into work this morning and have a meeting with their managers and then they were told to go home and if they had a laptop, they were to take the laptop with them," said Debi Buell, president of the Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees local in Charlottetown.

"We were told late last night that was the protocol, that they were to come into work and gather as much stuff as they could and that they were to go home and stay home for the next couple of weeks."

Buell said managers would be meeting with staff to determine who will continue to work from home, and how.

She said she was told there was not enough technological capacity for everyone on P.E.I. to be able to work remotely.

"I'm concerned that there's too many messages perhaps that are going out there," Buell said. "People are concerned and they're confused as to what is the latest information and what is it that they're supposed to be doing."

'It's unprecedented'

Buell said her understanding is that employees will continue to be paid.

"In our collective agreement — we do have a clause that says 'due to circumstances beyond your control' — there is a leave provision," Buell said.

"Because this is a situation, it's unprecedented, we haven't had this happen before, that that leave will be approved for our members."

Buell said taking care of veterans is the highest priority for her members.

"Our workforce is very diligent in terms of making sure that our clients do get their benefits," Buell said. "That's number one, that's critical, that people will maintain their benefits."

Making space for remaining workers

Meanwhile, about 70 per cent of the workers at the P.E.I. Tax Centre in Summerside are still on the job, including anyone who deals directly with delivering benefits to Canadians.

"What's taken place is the non-essential people have been sent home, the people that are involved in providing benefits to Canadians are asked to stay back," said Brian Oldford, regional vice-president (Atlantic) for the Union of Taxation Employees.

"CRA is trying to find ways and means for them to work in environments that are not crowded or in close proximity."

Oldford said the union has been told managers are looking for ways to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 at the workplace, including spreading out remaining staff.

"They're moving people out of call centres into locations where there is no population, like our tax service offices are basically empty right now," Oldford said. 

"Some of those call centre people will be moved into those offices so they're not working so close together, but things are changing constantly." 

Situation still changing

The union would prefer that everyone was able to work from home.

"We have no idea where this is going but looking at other countries, it's certainly affecting people," Oldford said.

Oldford said the situation is still changing quickly, and more taxation employees could soon be working remotely, including tax collectors and auditors.

"Some of these people will go home and have systems to work with from home," Oldford said.

"This whole thing decision came down on Sunday, so it's moving very quickly, so we're trying to make changes as fast as we can."

Buell said the union has been busy.

"Employees are concerned, I think a lot of us are, you know this is territory that we haven't been in before," Buell said.

"We've had storm closures and that type of thing, but we haven't had where we actually have to stay in place at home and keep our distance from our friends and colleagues and so it's a little unprecedented."

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