Bell believes the narrative surrounding its plans to reduce 4,800 positions has been misrepresented.
“As some distort the truth, here are the facts about Bell’s restructuring as announced on February 8,” Bell wrote in a press release titled “Facts Matter.”
The telecom giant says the changes impact the entire company, and “less than 10 percent of reductions” came from its media business. Bell further argued it “far exceeds” its regulatory duty by airing 250,000 hours of local news a year.
It’s unclear how this figure will hold up going forward, given the company’s restructuring saw it sell 45 of its 103 regional radio stations and scrap several weekend newscasts in areas outside Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
The reduction led to pushback from several public figures, including B.C. Premier David Eby.
“The fact that they cannot find it possible with all of their MBAs to operate a few local news stations in British Columbia to ensure people get accurate, impartial, reliable information in an age of disinformation and social media craziness is such an abandonment of any idea of corporate responsibility,” Eby said at the time.
In its article, Bell argues it invests $1.7 billion in content and programming yearly but loses more than $40 million annually on news.
Of the employees impacted, 800 are members of Unifor. The union has been vocal about the company’s layoff methods, which included terminating employees through virtual meetings. Bell argues that it worked with the union throughout the changes and that it still continues to do so.
“Before proceeding with unionized employee layoffs on March 20, Bell conducted a three-hour meeting with Unifor to explain the process by which unionized employees would be offered a voluntary severance package or would be laid off,” Bell said in the press release.
Bell expects a “majority” of these employees will leave voluntarily with a severance package it offered with the union’s consent.
Company representatives are set to appear before a federal committee on April 11th to answer questions regarding the layoffs.
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