‘Sense of fear’ among workers as Rogers guts customer service roles

Amid last week’s radio layoffs, Rogers also quietly gutted its front-line customer service agents — the latest in a long line of layoffs that are seeing customer service roles outsourced to other countries, soaring wait times, and declining service quality.

Rogers Sports & Media shuttered six radio stations last week as part of a wider elimination of 230 jobs. At the time, a Rogers spokesperson said 80 people lost their jobs as part of the radio closings, and the other 150 jobs impacted were spread across corporate roles, sales and marketing, TV and radio, and an unspecified number from outside of Rogers’ media division.

However, around the same time as the radio layoffs, social media platforms like Reddit were flooded with reports from Rogers employees claiming the company laid off “all of tier 1 customer support” as well as tech support roles and managers in a mass meeting. Moreover, several posters claimed Rogers was outsourcing roles to other countries.

When reached for comment by MobileSyrup, Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro denied the claims, saying the company “continue[s] to have tier 1 in house.” Carreiro then pointed to the already reported radio layoffs, saying the company is “making adjustments to reflect current market realities” and that the changes “reflect a small percentage of our workforce, including corporate and frontline roles.”

It remains unclear exactly how many customer service and tech support roles have been impacted, but reports indicate hundreds of people have been terminated. And it’s not just employees, with one Reddit post noting Rogers cut company-provided coffee and tea stations from offices.

BILLIONS FOR SPORTS TEAMS. MORE CUTS FOR WORKERS.
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CBC News echoed this as well in its reporting on Rogers, also citing a union organizer who was contacted by laid-off workers, Reddit posts, and a Toronto employment lawyer whose firm received dozens of calls from impacted employees.

Workers fear retaliation

However, workers have been hesitant to speak to MobileSyrup and other media, with many fearing retaliation from Rogers. Corey Mandryk, lead organizer with United Steelworkers Local 1944, which represents thousands of telecom workers across the country, described a “sense of fear” among current and former Rogers employees. Mandryk also said he’s seen an “absolute tidal wave” of people reaching out after last week’s layoffs.

“It’s got to a point where the non-unionized people who’ve had their head down hoping that it’s not coming for them are starting to realize that their department, and their work group, could be next,” Mandryk told MobileSyrup.

Similarly, CBC News reported that some workers said their severance packages came with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), preventing them from speaking out.

Amid all this, customers have reported increasing wait times and declining service when they need to call Rogers.

A pattern of outsourcing

Further, MobileSyrup has learned that many of the laid-off employees’ roles are moving to overseas call centres. Morocco is one country that has been named multiple times both on Reddit and in conversations MobileSyrup has had, as well as India and Indonesia.

Elsewhere, people described to MobileSyrup Rogers’ pattern of layoffs and outsourcing, where the company cuts in-house roles and either shifts to overseas labour or to contract roles. In some cases, Rogers employees were given an option to do the same role with a contractor, effectively resetting benefits like workers’ pensions while also putting them in a more vulnerable form of employment. With contractors, Rogers can simply cancel a contract instead of doing layoffs.

We’ve seen this pattern emerge over the last few years, particularly with last year’s Foundever and Ericsson layoffs. Roughly a year ago, MobileSyrup reported that roughly 1,000 workers were laid off from Foundever, which was contracted by Rogers for customer care and tech support call centre roles, after Rogers changed its “vendor mix.”

Also last year, MobileSyrup reported that Rogers forced hundreds of technical employees to take severance packages ot sign employment contracts with Ericsson, only for Ericsson to lay off a significant portion of those employees months later. The company reportedly kept a few employees on to help transition the roles to workers in India.

And those are just two examples of Rogers cutting jobs and outsourcing roles both in Canada and beyond. Just this year alone, we’ve seen Rogers lay off IT workers and offer buyouts to half of staff, all while the company spends billions on sports.

Sources: Reddit, (2), (3), CBC News