Shaw to lay off about 100 British Columbia field technicians

Shaw Communications Inc. plans to permanently lay off about 100 field technicians in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, stating the COVID-19 pandemic had “only accelerated” the company’s two-year pivot towards a self-connect service model. A Shaw spokesman said in an email that the redundancies — affecting less than eight per cent of its technician workforce — were necessary as “very few of our unionized technicians accepted early retirement or volunteer packages that were offered.” The layoffs were first reported by the Globe and Mail Thursday. Technician-led service and installation activity had declined as Shaw’s customers chose to install their own internet and TV services, the spokesperson said, a trend further accelerated by the pandemic. “Giving our customers the choice to install their own TV and internet services is an outcome of a journey started two years ago to reinvent our operating model to better meet the changing tastes and expectations of consumers and businesses,” the spokesperson said. “As health and physical restrictions are lifted, while we do not envision returning to our pre-pandemic model due to our new ways of interacting with customers and our process improvements, field technicians will be available, when required, to complete complex installations and troubleshoot customer self-installations both in the home and using virtual tools.” The spokesperson said they had no further comment to provide on the redundancies, noting a union had lodged a grievance. In a post to its monthly newsletter, United Steelworkers Union Local 1944 accused Shaw of hypocrisy for claiming both that COVID-19 had accelerated its “rush” to job cuts, and that they are due to technological change, which the union said “triggers a portion of the Collective Agreement that they hope will allow them to rid themselves of Union members without having to lay off contractors first.” “Greed is at the heart of this initiative, and Shaw can’t figure out which is the better excuse, the pandemic or a coincidentally timed technological change,” the union said in the newsletter. On April 14, Shaw announced it would temporarily lay off 10 per cent of its workforce due to COVID-19. A number of telecoms have moved entirely to assisted self-installs due to the pandemic, preventing technicians from entering homes as a health precaution. Rogers Communications Inc. chief financial officer Tony Staffieri told analysts during his company’s April 22 quarterly earnings call that the “assisted” installation process it had adopted during the pandemic cost 30 per cent less than a technician-enabled one, but that those savings would “get higher as move to full self-install models at a late date.” Correction: Rogers chief financial officer Tony Staffieri was incorrectly referred to as Joe Staffieri.

Shaw to lay off about 100 British Columbia field technicians

Brief | May 1, 2020

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Shaw to lay off about 100 British Columbia field technicians

Brief | May 1, 2020

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