Bell Canada will not get any money from the Unemployment Insurance Commission to subsidize its employees’ salaries. The telephone company and two of its unions had asked the commission for help to top up the wages of staff who volunteer to work four day weeks as a means to avoid layoffs.
But UIC rejected Bell’s request on the grounds the telephone company didn’t fit the government’s Criteria including there being a shortage of work ~ needed to get that type of assistance. Bell and union officials were disappointed by the decision and said it means the company may be forced to lay off thousands of workers.
“We may end up doing what we didn’t want to do that is lay off,” said Claude Beauregard, vice-president of communications for Bell Canada.
The telephone company, which made a profit of nearly $1 billion last year, sought the help from UIC to encourage about 10,000: employees to voluntarily choose a reduced work week for a full year.
It was a key part of Bell’s plan to Cut 5,000 jobs roughly 11% of its 46,700 work force through voluntary measures by the end of this year, Bell will still encourage its employees to voluntarily go to a shorter work week but were harder to entice them with the assistance from unemployment insurance, Beauregard said.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 3, 1993
