Unifor, which represents more than 19,000 employees at Bell and its subsidiaries, said it “expressed outrage” with how the terminations were being conducted.
Unifor, which represents more than 19,000 employees at Bell and its subsidiaries, said it “expressed outrage” with how the terminations were being conducted.
The union representing employees of Bell claimed the telecommunications giant laid off hundreds of its members Wednesday via virtual group meetings, a move which it described as “beyond shameful.”
In a press release, Unifor said more than 400 workers were informed Wednesday that they were being declared “surplus” by the company. Its members were informed of their termination in a 10-minute virtual meeting, the union claimed, adding that a manager read the layoff notice, “without allowing members or the union the opportunity to unmute to ask questions.”
“Our members, who have devoted years of service to this telecoms and media giant, are being repaid with pink slips,” said Daniel Cloutier, Unifor’s Quebec director, in a statement. “If that’s not beyond shameful, I don’t know what is.”
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
In a statement to the Star on Thursday, Bell’s director of communications Ellen Murphy said the company “has been working with Unifor and other unions on the impacts to our unionized workforce. Bell has been very transparent with Unifor leadership about the process in which these discussions would take place, having started discussions over five weeks ago, and has met all of our obligations under the respective collective bargaining agreements.”
Murphy added that employees who were let go additionally “had individual meetings with an HR representative to discuss their individual packages and to ask questions.”
Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union which has around 315,000 members across the country — including Toronto Star employees — represents more than 19,000 employees at Bell and its subsidiaries.
The union said it “expressed outrage” with how the terminations were being conducted, leading the company to change its approach for future meetings. Representatives from Unifor will be present moving forward, the union said, and workers on group calls will be free to unmute themselves and ask questions.
The latest layoffs follow Bell’s announcement in February that it was slashing roughly nine per cent of its workforce, affecting some 4,800 jobs. That decision was widely panned, coming as the company raised its quarterly dividend for shareholders.
“Restructuring the business is never an easy decision, but it’s what we need to do to simplify our organization and accelerate our transformation,” Bell’s president and CEO Mirko Bibic said at the time on an earnings call with analysts.
Lana Payne, president of Unifor National, said its members “have been living in dread of a meeting invite to find out they’ve lost their job since Bell announced the termination of thousands of jobs” earlier this year.
“The truth is Bell picked a number of heads to roll so it could increase its dividend payout without an actual plan on which jobs and which workers would be eliminated so the terminations are cruelly dragged out,” Payne added.
On Tuesday, the union and its members rallied in Ottawa against Bell, calling out the company for postponing its scheduled hearings in Parliament after being summoned to answer for the job cuts.
This is not the first time Bell has been accused of issuing layoffs in an impersonal manner and via virtual calls. In 2021, the Star previously reported that some employees working with Bell Media were notified of their terminations during minutes-long conference calls.
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