‘Absolutely disgusting:’ Unifor says Bell laid off hundreds of employees through virtual meetings


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Bell has reportedly laid off another round of employees.

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.”

MobileSyrup has reached out to Bell for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Source: Unifor