Rogers had approximately 24,000 employees as of its latest annual report, published last March.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T has laid off a portion of its in-house IT support team in several provinces and will redirect that work to a third-party vendor, which intends to rehire most of the affected employees, the company said.
In a statement, Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro said that the company is evolving its internal IT support for employees and expanding its work with a third-party vendor, which he did not name.
“They plan to hire the majority of our staff and there will be no impact to how our employees are supported, including our on-site IT support,” Mr. Carreiro said.
Lior Samfiru, employment lawyer and partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, said the firm had been hearing this week from Rogers’ in-house IT employees, “who say they were informed on Tuesday that their roles are being eliminated or outsourced as part of an internal restructuring.”
A spokesperson for the law firm said a Rogers employee who had been terminated told them that upwards of 100 roles had been affected, with some being given notice that their employment will end in a few months, rather than immediately, and being presented with severance offers in advance of that end date.
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Rogers said that the change affects a small percentage of those within internal IT support. The company had approximately 24,000 employees as of its latest annual report, published last March.
According to a number of LinkedIn posts made on Tuesday by former Rogers employees who indicated they no longer work for the company, the cuts have affected a range people in technical roles supporting Rogers’ internal staff, including software developers, audiovisual conferencing support and management.
Employees in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick were affected, according to these posts, though Rogers said that most of the job cuts are in Ontario.
Rogers said the third-party vendor is contracted by other Canadian companies to provide IT end-user services to employees. It did not say what proportion of those third-party workers would be based in Canada, but said Rogers’ employees would continue to have the same on-site support at company offices.
Rogers is not the only telecom making internal changes, Mr. Samfiru said.
“While this appears to be a distinct round of in-house IT changes, it mirrors what we’ve seen across the tech and communications sector in recent years, with ongoing outsourcing and increased use of AI,” he said.
The entire sector has been shedding roles as carriers transition to new technologies, especially for customer support, and aim to make their businesses more efficient, with executives pledging to pay down debt.
Most recently, in early February, Bell said it had laid off 60 employees in its Bell Media division, as part of a continuation to changes that led to the company cutting 650 roles last November.
And in January, Telus Corp. offered voluntary severance packages to about 700 employees across Canada, 500 of whom are unionized, according to United Steelworkers Local 1944 representing those employees.