Alberta’s 9,000 unionized provincial employees return to the office full time starting this weekend, and their union is answering with a brown bag protest. The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says workers will place bags reading “Hybrid work tastes better” on their desks, and more than 725 grievances have already been filed.
A lunch bag as a picket sign
Bobby-Joe Borodey, vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said workers are planning to place brown paper bags on their desks with a note stating: “Hybrid work tastes better.”
Borodey said the bag symbolizes pushback on the provincial government ending its hybrid work policy, in what she called a decision tied to revitalizing businesses near government offices. In a show of solidarity, members will bring lunch from home — a small, visible refusal to spend at the downtown businesses the return is supposed to help.
“If (the government) feels that this return to work is automatically going to fix the problems in our downtown cores, you would be mistaken,” Borodey said in an interview. She said the protest also stands for other union concerns with the end of the work-from-home program, including bad faith negotiating, lack of office space and impacts on mental health.
When the first day back arrived, the campaign was carried out: AUPE said uptake was strong, with members contacting the union to ask how to get more of the lunch bags.
How the policy ended
Alberta’s United Conservative Party government announced the cancellation of its hybrid work policy in October and ordered workers back to the office full time starting Sunday, Feb. 1. The policy, introduced in early 2022 to reduce the spread of COVID-19, had allowed employees to work from home two out of five days each week.
The scale is not small. As of August 2025, nearly 12,600 Alberta Public Service employees, or approximately 44 per cent of the workforce, participated in hybrid arrangements, according to the October announcement from the Deputy Ministers’ Council. Managers and other non-union employees are returning as well.
The government’s stated reason is the work itself. “Alberta’s public service is returning to full-time, in-office work in February to strengthen collaboration, accountability and service delivery for Albertans,” said Marisa Breeze, press secretary for Alberta’s finance ministry, in an email. Finance officials declined to confirm whether the government told the union it wants to boost local economies, and stressed the decision is about doing the best work possible. Exceptions can be made for medical reasons.
725 grievances, and a bargaining dispute underneath
The grievance count tells the other half of the story. Borodey said more than 725 workers have filed grievances over the back-to-office order since their applications requesting hybrid work were rejected.
Underneath the filings sits a dispute about what was promised. Borodey said the union was assured during contract talks last year that employees would still be able to request hybrid work, and took that as a signal the government would not cancel the program. Within six weeks, the cancellation was announced.
“There was no disclosure throughout the entire bargaining process indicating that there were plans to remove the hybrid work policy,” she said. “It left a very nasty taste in the mouth of those workers who ratified that agreement.”
Space is the practical worry. Members have raised concern that there will not be enough desks, since hybrid schedules had allowed workers to rotate workspaces. Breeze said every worker will have workspace, and that roughly 99 per cent will already be assigned their permanent workspaces. Borodey said mental health is also an issue for those going back.
Alberta is moving further than most provinces. Ontario ordered its public servants back full time on Jan. 5, while governments in Manitoba, British Columbia and New Brunswick still allow hybrid work, and the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador have said they are reviewing their remote-work policies.
