Rogers’ mass voluntary severance offers to 10,000 workers could help company lose less-desirable workers without opening up legal liability: lawyers
When Rogers Communications Inc. confirmed this week it was offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 10,000 eligible employees — close to half of its 25,000-person workforce — the announcement landed as the largest such round in Canadian telecommunications in recent memory.
The company framed the program as a way to adjust its cost structure and let some employees decide whether to stay or begin a new chapter. Bell Canada's parent, BCE Inc., has used similar tools recently.
For HR executives, a key strategy in Rogers’ program may be how voluntary exit programs can trim unwanted employees to streamline the workforce and avoid getting caught up in legal quagmires, according to two employment lawyers.
Lior Samfiru, national managing co-partner at Samfiru Tumarkin in Toronto, says employers consistently reach for voluntary buyouts for cost reasons as well as the ability to shift workforce demographics without crossing legal lines.
On cost, Samfiru is blunt about why a buyout program is cheaper than a mass termination, particularly at companies like Rogers where long-tenured employees would otherwise command significant severance. “With a termination, the law dictates what you have to pay employees, and that amount can be very significant,” he says. “A lot of these employers like Rogers have long-service...
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