The union representing workers at Ubisoft Montreal Studio has pushed back against management's mandate for a full return to the office.

Ubisoft introduced remote working across its global offices from early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. As the pandemic began to settle, the company made a minimum of two days in-office per week mandatory for headquarters and select branches starting in 2023, before bumping that up to three days a week in 2024. Then, for 2026, the policy shifted to a mandatory five-day in-office week for all staff, restricting remote work strictly to a capped number of days per year. It appears this headquarters policy has now rolled out to the Montreal studio.

In response, the Ubisoft Montreal Studio union has kicked off collective action to get the decision scrapped and preserve the existing hybrid working model that combined remote and in-person days. The union announced a petition via social media, claiming to have already gathered signatures from over 300 staff members. Total headcount at Ubisoft Montreal Studio is currently estimated to be around 4,000.

Game Workers United, an external labor organization, has also thrown support behind the signature campaign. The union coalition pointed out that management's return-to-office directive was pushed through while ignoring the voices of those most affected by the policy—such as workers with childcare responsibilities, disabled employees, and staff who relocated to distant regions or even abroad.

If the company promised remote work in official documents and staff based major life decisions like moving house or purchasing property on those promises, such a sudden about-face is entirely fair game for criticism. Particularly if contracts guaranteed permanent remote work, staff would have legal grounds to push back. However, looking at the current state of union activities, the chances of an unconditional guarantee clause existing in their contracts remain rather slim.