Bell is offering an “enhanced voluntary separation program” to around 1,200 unionized employees, the company told the Star on Tuesday.
Bell Media is not affected by the buyouts, Bell said.
“Canada’s telecommunications industry continues to face unprecedented challenges,” the company said, “and our business is changing.”
Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, criticized the move, calling it short-sighted and a “damaging stunt to temporarily reduce costs.”
“Bell cannot keep cutting jobs every year and expect the ship to turn itself around,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a release Monday.
The buyouts, Bell said, will be less disruptive to employees and allow unionized employees the option to retire or pursue new career opportunities.
The move comes a year after Bell slashed 4,800 jobs — nine per cent of its workforce — across the country in February 2024, its largest restructuring in almost 30 years. It also announced plans to sell off 45 radio stations and close more than 100 The Source stores.
At the time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the mass layoffs a “garbage decision” and said he was “pretty pissed off.” Bell Media president Sean Cohan later defended the move as a way to accelerate the company’s digital media goals.
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said last year that CTV conventional stations lost more than $180 million in 2023.
Bell also eliminated 1,300 positions in June 2023, saying at the time it was moving toward “greater collaboration and efficiency” in how it delivers the news.
“Several organizational initiatives, and migrating customers to a more resilient and easier to maintain fibre network, have resulted in reduced workloads requiring fewer positions,” Bell told the Star on Tuesday. “Bell continues to invest in key growth areas that enhance the customer experience and grow the business.”
