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A Winnipeg man says he doesn’t believe Rogers is firing customer service agents – after he spent nearly three hours last month trying to contact a man to discuss his cellphone contract.
“It’s very frustrating,” Jeremy Diaz said. “If Rogers lays off even one frontline employee, it means wait times will become even more unacceptable.”
But as Rogers confirmed media reports, he cut 230 sports and media jobs last week and quietly laid off customer service representatives, Go Public has learned.
- Do you have a story you want to investigate? Contact Erica and the Go Public team gopublic@cbc.ca
Rogers did not respond this week to requests to confirm the number of job cuts. However, spokesman Zach Carreiro told Go Public last week that the cuts affected “a small percentage of our workforce, including corporate and front-line positions.”
“We are investing in digital tools and self-service to help our customers faster as their desire for self-service grows,” Carreiro wrote in an email at the time. “Like our colleagues, we continue to use both our own and third-party suppliers.”
When asked about the long wait times reported by Diaz, Carreiro said Thursday that Rogers is “constantly working to improve our customer service and the quality of service we provide.”
A union organizer contacted by laid-off non-union Rogers workers said hundreds of people may be laid off.
Rogers’ money should stay local: union organizer
“Rogers makes money from Canadians, including Canadian taxpayers and businesses, but does not keep that money in communities,” said Corey Mandryk, lead organizer of United Steelworkers Local 1944, which represents thousands of telecommunications workers across Canada.
“They have a responsibility to be a good employer.”
Mandryk says laid off employees told him the jobs were being transferred to an overseas call center in Morocco – a claim Carreiro has not confirmed.
When Rogers merged with rival Shaw Communications in 2023, it promised to move overseas jobs back to Canada to ensure “100 percent customer service in Canada.” (CBC)
When Rogers merged with Shaw Communications in 2023, the company promised to move overseas jobs back to Canada to ensure “100 percent customer service in Canada.”
People claiming to be Rogers customer service employees said on Reddit that dozens of so-called “Level 1” support employees – the first point of human contact with customers – have been laid off. Some repeated what Mandryk was told, that Rogers was training workers in Morocco to replace them.
CBC News couldn’t confirm whether the people posting on Reddit worked for Rogers because everyone said they were too nervous and didn’t want to risk their severance packages by speaking to the media – severance packages they said come with non-disclosure agreements.
Customer criticizes the state of telecommunications services in Canada
Reddit users said they were called into meetings last week and told they were being fired. They said they were ordered to shut down the Rogers computers and return the equipment.
A Toronto employment lawyer told Go Public his firm has received dozens of calls from affected employees who work in customer service, technical support and sales departments.
“Given Canada’s already troubling economic situation, it is disappointing that Rogers is choosing to let all of these people go,” said Thomas Benstead.
The cuts follow customer service layoffs announced earlier this year by Telus and similar cuts announced by Bell in June.
In the meantime, Diaz says he intends to file a small claims lawsuit over the contract dispute because he won’t get anywhere using Rogers’ customer service channels.
“We have a jobs crisis in our country,” Diaz said. “The company that makes a profit doesn’t spend that money—that profit—in our country on good jobs.”
He says he’s disappointed by what he calls an overall decline in customer service from telecom companies in Canada, citing stricter rules in Europe where it’s easier for customers to cancel contracts. Spain requires that 95 percent of customer service calls be answered within three minutes.
“It appears that the telecom giants have realized that the government will not stop them,” Diaz said.
“So they’re actively disrupting the traditional customer service model because they know there’s nowhere else for us to go.”
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