A few dozen people demonstrated in front of the Montreal offices of the Telus company on Saturday afternoon to protest what they call the “constructive dismissal” of 150 employees, forced to move to Montreal after the tightening of internal rules on teleworking.
On July 9, the telecommunications company announced a return to the office three days a week for its approximately 1,000 call center employees across the country, some of whom had been working remotely for several years, even before the start of the pandemic.
For the 150 workers at Telus call centres in Ontario, there was the added obligation to move to Montreal to keep their jobs, since the company has chosen to close offices in the province.
According to Michael Phillips, president of United Steelworkers Local 1944, which represents Telus employees across the country, this is a backdoor way for the employer to eliminate jobs by forcing workers to leave.
“I suspect that very few of the people affected will even consider moving, themselves and their families. I think the company simply expects them to refuse to leave Ontario for Quebec,” he said in an interview with Duty in front of the Telus Tower, on René-Lévesque Boulevard West.
“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.
In making the announcement, Telus said employees who accept the move would receive financial support while others could receive voluntary severance packages.
“Under our collective agreements, they can’t just fire people. So they want to force them out. The voluntary departure program is not successful enough, so they’re making it harder on employees,” says Michael Phillips.
The Steelworkers union filed an injunction application on July 31 with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, where Telus is headquartered, to counter the return-to-office directive and try to push back the deadline by which affected employees will have to render their decision.
“People only have until August 9 to submit their decision. It’s fast, we’re rushing them. It’s a lot of insecurity for these families. For us, it’s a disguised tactic by the employer to lay off 150 workers,” laments Dominic Lemieux, Quebec director of the Metalworkers. “Afterwards, we want to go to court to argue that this measure is illegal and infringes on workers’ rights.”
The union intends to argue in court that this decision harms the fundamental rights of its employees, particularly those who worked from home for medical or family reasons.
“Telus has a historic policy that allows people to work from home and has never announced to unions or its members that it was going to change,” said Michael Phillips. “We don’t think it’s legal to send employees from Ontario to Quebec, people who will have to move away from their families and their roots. A company that has offices in the Philippines, Guatemala or India can certainly afford offices in Ontario.”
In its second-quarter results on Friday, Telus reported an increase in net new customers but a decline in average revenue per user. Adjusted net income was $366 million, up 34.1 per cent year over year from $273 million in the same quarter last year. Consolidated operating and other revenues for the quarter increased 0.6 per cent to $4.97 billion.
In 2023, Telus announced it would cut 6,000 jobs globally.
With The Canadian Press