New Bell MTS entity to cut workforce

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This article was published 09/05/2017 (3164 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Less than two months after Bell acquired MTS, the new Bell MTS entity is looking to reduce its workforce by up to 85 with an enhanced voluntary retirement package.

A union official said the package was negotiated in April and efforts are underway to achieve the targeted reductions entirely through voluntary means.

Bob Linsdell, executive director of the Telecommunications Employees Association of Manitoba (TEAM), said the company is targeting employees in information technology, networks and finance.

“These are almost certainly duplications of jobs currently already being done by existing Bell employees,” he said,

Workers have until the end of May to apply for the enhanced early retirement packages that offer severance of up to 69 weeks pay depending on the specific employee’s tenure with the company.

This current round of buyouts follows one in 2016 that saw about 300 TEAM members accept a voluntary retirement package.

TEAM represents white-collar professionals and managers at MTS. It currently has about 880 members employed at Bell MTS, down from 1,200 about 2 1/2 years ago.

The latest round of downsizing, while not unexpected, is a source of anxiety for his members, Linsdell said.

“The members are happy the enhanced voluntary retirement package is there, but for members who have a mortgage and a couple of kids in university, it is definitely stressful,” he said.

“All parties in this want to achieve this downsizing, every downsizing, by voluntary means if at all possible. To that end, Bell MTS and the union came to an agreement on an enhanced package to entice more people to volunteer.”

Linsdell said his understanding is the reductions are being targeted only at TEAM members. A spokesman for Unifor, which represents about 900 Bell MTS front-line workers, said it is unlikely Unifor members will be eligible for the early retirement packages. The spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents about 850 workers, was not available.

In an email to the Free Press, an official with Bell MTS said, “There will be new opportunities at Bell MTS as we roll out our major broadband investment plan and some departures at both Bell MTS and Bell Canada as we integrate our operations due to duplication in corporate and other roles… Similar to the MTS transformational process of recent years, we are offering a voluntary retirement program that provides eligible employees with the opportunity to depart the company if they choose with a financial incentive recognizing their contributions and years of service.”

More than 100 TEAM members are eligible for early retirement, but they are not necessarily employed in the targeted jobs, nor are they necessarily prepared to retire, Linsdell said.

The company and the union have negotiated a process of re-deployment that if someone from a non-targeted position applies for the buyout package, the company will endeavour to re-deploy someone from elsewhere in the company to do that work.

“Rather than move to lay off, the first thing we do, it is in our collective agreement, is start talking about re-deploying,” Linsdell said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca