Unifor says Bell laid off hundreds of employees through virtual meetings

Bell has laid off another set of employees under a restructuring plan it announced last month.

According to Unifor, a union representing some workers of one of Canada’s three national telecom providers, the layoffs took place through virtual group meetings.

The layoffs happened Wednesday, a day after the union held a rally in Ottawa protesting the last round of job cuts that impacted nine percent of Bell’s workforce six weeks ago.

Employees the union represents have “been living in dread” of invites to the virtual meetings that announced their departure, Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said in a statement.

More than 400 employees were informed they were losing their jobs in a 10-minute virtual meeting, the union said in a press release. An HR and labour relations manager from Bell read the attendees a notice, who were not allowed to unmute themselves to ask questions.

These employees were declared “surplus,” with some eligible for a “retirement incentive.”

The method led the union to express “outrage” with the termination method, leading Bell to change its approach. Future meetings will include Unifor representatives, and attendees will be allowed to unmute themselves.

Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer Len Poirier called the terminations “absolutely disgusting.”

“Our dedicated, loyal, workers, who are predominately women, will have to explain to their families… that they are being let go from Bell for no good reason other than making sure that their shareholders and Board of Directors come first when getting paid.”

In a statement, Bell said it’s been working with Unifor and other unions since it announced its “restructuring” last month. Many of the employees impacted in this round of layoffs were remote, it noted.

“As planned with Unifor, on March 20, Bell initiated calls with groups of our unionized team members to give notice of upcoming actions taking place, which include both a voluntary separation program and surplus reductions. Employees who were informed that they were being let go additionally had individual meetings with an HR representative to discuss their individual packages and to ask questions. They also have the option to invite a union representative to the meeting,” part of the statement reads.

“Bell is offering departing surplus employees fair and competitive severance packages, including providing non-working notice and salary continuance as negotiated with the union. Most of the employees are remote workers as enshrined in their collective bargaining agreement, and therefore all of these discussions are being handled remotely so that they are not called into an office.”

Update 03/22/2024, 11:47am ET: The story has been updated with a statement from Bell.

Update 03/22/2024, 1:38pm ET: The article has been updated to clarify the 400 layoffs are part of Bell’s February announcement to cut 4,800 jobs.

Source: Unifor