Former employees seeking more than $6 million in damages, alleging telecom used RTO crackdown to disguise cost-cutting strategy
Nearly 50 former Bell employees have launched legal action against parent company BCE Inc., alleging their dismissals for alleged attendance fraud were part of a broader cost-cutting strategy rather than a genuine code-of-conduct enforcement.
The 46 plaintiffs, most based in the Toronto area, filed documents last week in Ontario Superior Court of Justice claiming more than $6 million in damages combined, according to the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. Their tenures ranged from two to 32 years, and their roles spanned sales, software engineering, project management and human resources.
Bell has maintained the terminations were for clear, individual violations of its code of conduct and were not economically motivated.
Bell fired the employees for what it called "swipe and go" behaviour — using access badges to tap into the office to satisfy a three-days-per-week return-to-office requirement, then leaving immediately. The company said the conduct amounted to deliberate and repeated falsification of workplace attendance, warranting termination for cause — a finding that strips employees of severance entitlements.
But the tactics used were varied, according to a Bell insider who spoke to the Toronto Star. Some workers swiped access cards just before midnight and again minutes later to log attendance on two consecutive...
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