Shame On Bell In A Booming Economy | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Shame On Bell In A Booming Economy

I don’t begrudge companies for restructuring, they are businesses and their goal is profit. If their small media stations are burning cash, the best thing to do is sell them to operators who can make them work.

In Bell’ case there are other things that may need to be considered as they are beneficiaries of a jumble of protectionist regulations that pad their pockets. Not sure how to evaluate that.

At the end of the day, no public or private company should be responsible for carrying on a business that is not profitable.
That's all fair enough. On the protectionist front, bell has proven that they aren't capable of running a media empire. Any and all requests to onboard more media companies/licenses should be flatly rejected.
 
My wife got the axe today from one of bell's main contractors. 25+ years, poof
Did she sign anything upon being released?
What she packaged out with notice or did she simply walk into work and "get the axe"?
 
It depends on what may have been in any contract. If it has "in compliance with employment standards act", even two years may me a tough fight. In any case, definitely worth talking to a lawyer.
If she was in a union, severance would be outlined in a collective bargaining agreement, there isn't much you can do but wait for the agreement's payout. I think most unions bargain for 1 week per year of service.

Concerning using employment lawyers (non-union, non-contract employees), the first step would be to visit a few employment lawyer sites that have severance calculators. Their severance calculators give you a good idea as to what caselaw settlements are for your age, years of service, and position. Once you have a number in mind, try to negotiate yourself based on your findings before hiring a lawyer -- if you're successful, you'll end up with a lot more cash. If you can't come to an amicable agreement, employment lawyers work 2 ways: on retainer, about $400/hour. On contingency (they don't charge you until a settlement is reached) -- that costs about 25% of the settlement awarded to you.
 
If she was in a union, severance would be outlined in a collective bargaining agreement. I think most unions settle for 1 week per year of service - there's no fighting that.

Concerning using employment lawyers (non-union, non-contract employees), the first step would be to visit a few employment lawyer sites that have severance calculators. Their severance calculators give you a good idea as to what caselaw settlements are for your age, years of service, and position. Once you have a number in mind, try to negotiate yourself based on your findings before hiring a lawyer -- if you're successful, you'll end up with a lot more cash. If you can't come to an amicable agreement, employment lawyers work 2 ways: on retainer, about $400/hour. On contingency (they don't charge you until a settlement is reached) -- that costs about 25% of the settlement awarded to you.
I'm surprised that unions agree to such a low settlement in CBA. You are right, there's no point spending money to try to get around CBA. ESA is one week per year (IIRC, it's been a while since I looked), common law is ~one month per year.

At one point I worked for a company that was potentially going to be sold. They wanted me to sign an employment contract that reduced severance from the existing common law to ESA and the compensation to sign the contract was more than zero but not by much. They didn't like the redlined contract I gave back. Takeover didn't happen. I'm not sure if they would have agreed to my reasonable edits or if I would have been terminated and awarded common law severance.
 
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Sorry to hear @klr_guy. For what it’s worth my neighbour (early 50s) was let go from IBM after 19 years of service.

They offered him 9 months or so, he called a lawyer. She demanded 24 months as a start, and ended up with 18 months severance paid out monthly as a salary.

She took approx 30% of the DIFFERENCE between original offer and what she was able to get.

This is info from said neighbour, so actual details may be a little off as we’re not super close. But he was very happy.
 
@klr_guy she was with a contractor not Bell directly so there may be solvency issues if Bell cut them off completely, just a potential point here. As an employee of a contractor she may have been under ESA or CLC, my guess is ESA. Bell employees I suspect are all federally regulated = CLC.

It all sucks.
 
@klr_guy she was with a contractor not Bell directly so there may be solvency issues if Bell cut them off completely, just a potential point here. As an employee of a contractor she may have been under ESA or CLC, my guess is ESA. Bell employees I suspect are all federally regulated = CLC.

It all sucks.
Thanks for all the kindness folks. Just to clarify a severance package has been offered, we're just ensuring it's fair and adequate.
 
I think you're misunderstanding something.. it's not a settlement.. you're negotiating a severance package.
Severance pay goes on your T4 and ROE.
The company will certainly report it.
Sounds reasonable but maybe a lawyer can help move money from pile A to pile B as part of the settlement. Company pays less, terminated employee gets more, only loser is the government.
 

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