The Flexible Work Arrangements policy was approved by Memorial University’s Board of Regents on March 6, 2025, and is effective April 1, 2025.

This policy replaces the Guidelines for Remote Work Arrangements for Non-Academic Employees, piloted from Aug. 29, 2022 to March 31, 2025.

The new policy encompasses all flexible work arrangements (FWA), including remote work, reduced work weeks, job sharing, short-term lateral position exchanges, revised work schedules and compressed work schedules. Applicable provisions regarding flexible work arrangements within the Leave Administration Policy have been relocated to the new policy.

Each FWA will begin with a six-month trial period for viability assessment and will be subject to review and evaluation on an annual basis and as required. Over the next few weeks, the Department of Human Resources will be contacting unit heads to confirm the continuation of preexisting remote work arrangements within their areas.  

New

New provisions within the Flexible Work Arrangements policy include the following:

• Management and Professional (MPS) staff are now included within the group of eligible employees able to participate in compressed work weeks. Other eligible employee groups include Non-Bargaining (NB), CUPE 1615, NAPE 7850, and NAPE 7405 staff.
• Unit heads must approve all FWA (signing authority to approve FWA cannot be delegated within a unit).
• Unit heads need to provide written justification for denied FWA requests.
• stronger language is incorporated in the policy to further clarify that FWAs are not to impose additional financial burdens on the university.

The creation of the new policy involved an extensive consultation process that included a university-wide employee survey and 12 focus group sessions.

Information sessions

In-person and virtual information sessions will be held between April and June 2025 to educate the Memorial community about policy changes, FWA parameters, responsibilities and the application process. Recordings of sessions will be accessible in Brightspace.