MTS offers 50 workers early retirement to improve workflow, save money

Manitoba Telecom Services says it is downsizing its workforce to improve workflow and save money, but one union says that could add strain and increaseworkloads for remaining workers.

MTSconfirmed Wednesday that it wants 50 workers to apply for early retirement. Information services, finance and warehouse jobs will be affected.

Bob Linsdell, executive director of theTelecommunications Employees Association of Manitoba, said the losses are acontinuation of what happened last winter, when about 200 employees were lost due to downsizing.

"It's become more and more difficult to get pay increases for our members, there are tighter restrictions on training, more workload, things getting a bit more stressed. And that hasenabled MTS over the past few years to keep costs down, and this is more of that,"Linsdellsaid, adding fewer workers means remaining employees have to juggle greater workloads.

"That's becoming a major concern for us, because of the consequences of excess workload, longer hourson health and on families, in addition to keeping people employed."

MTS called the move a "voluntary workforce reduction program" and said workers in select positions can apply for early retirement.

• MTS in Manitoba: A brief history

Employees are able to apply until Oct. 13, 2016.

"While we are sometimes faced with difficult business choices, our decisions are based on the long-term success of the company and investing in better service for our customers," MTS said in a statement Wednesday.

"By improving our cost structure, we can better invest in processes, systems and tools to enhance our customer experience, which is key to delivering on our strategy and the future success of our company."

MTS currentlyemployeesabout 2,600 people, compared to4,000 about two decades ago, according to Linsdell.By contrastSaskTel, a Saskatchewan-based telecom corporation that provides a similarservice to MTS, currently employees 3,800 workers.

The announcement Wednesday hasnothing to do with the company's planned merger with Bell Canada (BCE), MTS said. BCE announced in May that it would purchaseMTS in a friendly deal worth $3.9 billion.

The Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench approved of the transaction in June. The merger is expected to be completed late this year or in early 2017.

• Court approves BCE friendly takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services
• MTS sale to Bell panned by most Manitobans, survey says

Linsdell said it isn't clear how the merger could impact jobs in Manitoba.

"It's really up in the air....We don't know if it's going to result in job reductions here in Manitoba," he said."There may be synergies achieved by job reductions outside of Manitoba and work actually brought into our province. That's our hope."