About thirty representatives of the Metalworkers’ Union gathered Saturday in front of the Montreal offices of Telus to protest what they consider to be the “constructive dismissal” of more than a hundred workers.
On July 9, 150 Telus employees in Ontario were notified that their Ontario office would be closed and that they would have to report to the Montreal office three days a week or lose their jobs.
“In Ontario, they just saw the last call centre in Barrie close, but they didn’t mention that they had already closed the ones in Scarborough and now in Toronto. […] “They are closing the head office in Ontario to call service people,” summarizes Michel Brunet, Telus employee and head of unit 602 of the Metalworkers union in Montreal.
Employees have until August 9 to decide whether to move. The union has asked the court in British Columbia, where Telus is headquartered, to suspend this deadline.
“Afterwards, we want to go and argue in court that this measure is illegal and infringes on the rights of workers,” warns the Quebec director of the Metalworkers, Dominic Lemieux.
The company ended its remote work policy last month, and the changes will go into effect in September.
While the practice has become more widespread during the pandemic, many employees have had this right for more than 15 years, the union says.
A criticized relocation
“Telus keeps relocating jobs abroad and now, all of a sudden, it would no longer be possible to telework? It’s ridiculous,” Mr. Lemieux shouts in a press release.
He said in an interview that the company has eliminated nearly half of its jobs in Canada. “It’s been cut drastically, except it’s disguised.”
Telus supervisors’ union president Brian Leclerc believes the employer’s strategy is to “disgust the staff as much as possible” in order to get workers to accept severance offers.
The goal, according to him, would be “to send work outside our borders; to India, the Philippines, Romania, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Guatemala, where there is no labor code, no collective agreements and where they can exploit the world as they want.”
An observation shared by Michael Phillips, president of the Metalworkers Local 1944, of which the 150 Ontario employees are members. “They are trying to take advantage of the miserable situation at work to buy us out and relocate our jobs. They have already relocated about 9,000 jobs around the world in the last 15 years,” he summarizes.
A year ago, the telecommunications company cut 6,000 jobs, including 4,000 in Canada. Mr. Phillips adds that there are about 4,000 workers left in his union unit, compared to 80,000 internationally.
“It’s quite ironic, they’re trying to protect Canada from foreign companies, but they’re becoming one through the back door.”
Employees from the Videotron centre in Gatineau were also on site. “We have the same issues in our respective unions, it’s always the employers who want to bring people back to work […] “issues of subcontracting and overseas work,” explains Guy Gagné, treasurer of the Vidéotron union.
Gatineau employees have been locked out since last October, among other things for reasons of teleworking and maintaining jobs in the country.