Bell cuts nearly 700 jobs in latest round of layoffs

Bell Canada says it is cutting about 690 employees, mostly managers, to help reduce debt and accelerate growth. This cut has been made after thousands of layoffs in the company last year.

This time, Bell says it is eliminating about 650 non-union management positions across the country, which represent less than two percent of its workforce.

Canada’s largest communications company said it is also cutting about 40 jobs at Bell Media, which represents less than one per cent of its news division.

“We made the difficult but necessary decision to cut manager jobs to advance the company’s three-year strategic plan to deliver “sustainable growth,” Bell told CBC News in an email.

It did not provide further explanation for Bell Media’s job cuts, but said it thanked the laid-off employees “for their dedication and contributions.”

Earlier this year, Bell offered severance packages to 1,200 unionized employees, blaming “unprecedented challenges” in the telecommunications industry.

Canada’s telecommunications industry has seen a slowdown in growth over the past year, and major players such as BCE and Rogers have shed some of their assets in an effort to reduce costs.

Bell sold its 37.5 percent ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) to Rogers for $4.7 billion last September. A few months later, it announced that it would buy American telecom company Zipli for $5 billion.

TeaThe company has cut thousands of jobs in the last one and a half years. This includes 1,300 deductions In June 2023, and, in February 2024, Bell announced that 4,800 employees were laid off And several dozen radio stations will be closed, with further layoffs targeted technical staff In June of the same year.