Mon Jul 18, 09:31 PM

Call centre workers blindsided by cuts in Ontario, Quebec

CTV News.ca Staff
The workers aren't sure whether they'll be paid for their final two weeks of work. They also argue that the company hasn't given them the paperwork they need to apply for unemployment insurance.

Hundreds of former call centre workers in Montreal and Oshawa, Ont., are fighting for their final paycheques and benefits after being laid off with little notice.

IQT Solutions, an American-based call centre, abruptly declared bankruptcy in Canada last week, eliminating hundreds of jobs in the process.

Scorned employees marched to Oshawa's city hall Monday morning, protesting the company's decision to terminate them without their final paycheques, severance or vacation pay. Workers in Montreal also held a rally, protesting their termination.

More than 1,000 of IQT's Canadian workers are now unemployed including 400 full-time workers in Oshawa and another 475 full-time employees in Quebec.

The full-time workers average about $13 an hour.

Several ex-IQT workers in Laval and Trois-Rivieres, Que., are also trying to figure out how to proceed.

The workers aren't sure whether they'll be paid for their final two weeks of work. They also argue that the company hasn't given them the paperwork they need to apply for unemployment insurance.

Labour laws typically require companies to tell employees about a layoff two weeks ahead of time.

IQT is also a subcontractor to Bell Canada, a company that owns CTV. Bell confirmed Monday that they have ended their contract with the call centre business.

"We learned Friday morning that they'd closed their doors…Bell is growing its customer service and other teams and we will accommodate IQT employees where we can," Bell Canada said in a statement.

IQT's Canadian job losses come weeks after the company said it was opening a call centre in the business' headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

The centre is expected to create 900 new jobs in Nashville over the next five years.

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV's Stephane Giroux and Ashley Rowe.

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