Telus offered buyouts to hundreds of employees across Canada

Vancouver-based national telecom company Telus is offering more buyouts to hundreds of employees.

Per The Canadian Press (via CityNews), the telco offered buyout packages to almost 700 workers across the country, including over 500 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) union. The union’s Local 1944 represents around 4,000 Telus employees, and told The Canadian Press that the buyout offers impact workers in Telus’ Business Solutions operations across B.C., Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.

Workers were given until Jan. 21 to decide on the offers.

Telus spokeswoman Sacha Gudmundsson told The Canadian Press that the buyouts were part of a voluntary separation program implemented in 2025 as a result of rapid change in the industry and “growing customer demand for self-serve solutions.”

Gudmundsson also said the buyout packages “exceed the requirements of the Canada Labour Code” and said that it was a “standard operating practice” of the carrier to offer voluntary packages.

However, the USW warned in a press release that it would hurt communities and the economy.

“Further workforce reductions at Telus will hurt communities and the Canadian economy, and will only exacerbate Canadians’ growing dissatisfaction with the service they’re receiving from telecommunications companies,” said USW Local 1944 president Michael Phillips in the release.

The buyouts come at a time when Canadians are increasingly frustrated with telecom companies, which are cutting jobs, increasing prices, and making service worse. Telus offered buyouts to 700 employees in February 2025, and the company laid off 6,000 workers in 2023. In 2024, the company had a scuffle with Local 1944 when it closed an Ontario call centre and told about 150 employees to relocate to Montreal or be laid off.

Moreover, executives from both Telus and Bell said last year that the companies would look to raise their average revenue per user (ARPU) by raising prices in 2026. Notably, both companies have had ARPU hovering around the $57-$58 mark for years. Even Statistics Canada warned that wireless prices could go up in 2026 after noting price increases in the tail-end of 2025.

We’ve also seen some Canadian carriers cut customer service roles, such as call centre jobs, in favour of self-serve options and automated systems powered by AI chatbots, resulting in tons of Canadians having difficulty contacting their carriers when they need to resolve issues. Rogers is arguably the leader in this push, with the company cancelling a call centre contract that saw nearly 1,000 Canadians lose their jobs. Employees called the move a shift to AI-based help systems. Since then, we’ve noted a massive uptick in complaints from people unable to contact humans at Rogers — the Rogers Reddit page is full of posts from people unable to contact support.

While it’s not clear if Telus is going a similar route with AI-powered help systems, the multiple buyouts and layoffs over the last few years have had an impact on Telus’ operations, with the carrier receiving the most complaints in the 2025 mid-year report from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS).

Source: USW Local 1944, The Canadian Press (CityNews)