The work force reduction at Telus, which it says largely affected management professionals, amounts to a 10-per-cent drop in the Vancouver-based telecom’s total employee count.Isabella Falsetti/The Globe and Mail
Telus Corp. T-T dropped 3,300 net jobs in 2024, a year when all three of the country’s largest telecoms reduced their work forces by thousands of roles and their top executives experienced declining earnings.
The work force reduction at Telus, which it says largely affected management professionals, amounts to a 10-per-cent drop in the Vancouver-based telecom’s total employee count.
The job losses were “based on continued technology and digital transformations in key areas of our business and advancements in AI, and in response to the continued regulatory, economic and competitive headwinds the telecom industry is facing as a whole,” Telus spokesperson Liz Sauvé said in an e-mail.
Telus disclosed the work force reduction in its latest annual report, released last week, which does not clarify how many of the losses were layoffs, buyouts or departures. The company now has a total of 27,800 employees, according to the report.
It’s the second year in a row of work force reductions at the telecom, after cutting 4,300 jobs in 2023.
In February, Telus offered buyouts to a further 700 unionized employees, citing a reduction in workload owing to technological enhancements of its network. Ms. Sauvé said Telus offers “financially generous voluntary separation packages” for such buyouts, where employees choose to leave.
At the same time, the company added 3,700 jobs in 2024 at its customer experience outsourcing and digital services subsidiary, Telus International Inc., operating as Telus Digital, in response to growing customer demand.
The subsidiary, of which Telus owns a 56-per-cent economic interest, employs 79,000 staff globally, with online support primarily provided from North America, India, Philippines, Central America and Europe.
Last week, Telus Digital sent home as many as 2,000 people from its content-moderation centre in Barcelona after Facebook owner Meta Platforms severed its contract, local unions CCOO and UGT said. Employees were placed on leave, with full salaries but no work to carry out, while Telus negotiates severance with unions, according to an e-mail sent to workers.
Last year was a difficult one for the telecom sector over all, with fierce competition for mobile customers suppressing revenue, high debt levels persisting despite companies’ goals to pay them down and lower immigration reducing future customer growth.
Telus is not the only Canadian telecom reducing its work force. Last year, Bell Canada parent BCE Inc. announced it was cutting 4,800 jobs across the company, and this spring offered buyouts to 1,200 employees. Rogers Communications Inc.’s annual statements show the company dropped 2,000 jobs after substantial reductions the year prior.
Telus shares dropped 17 per cent in 2024, the smallest drop out of the three carriers, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Including dividends, shareholder returns dropped 11.5 per cent, compared with 30 per cent at Bell and 26.1 per cent at Rogers. Telus also had the most “buy” recommendations among analysts in December.
The company’s chief executive officer, Darren Entwistle, earned slightly less in 2024 than the previous year. In 2024, he had the same base salary of $1,600,000, but slightly lower share-based awards and other compensation – amounting to a total of $20.6-million, down from $21-million the previous year. This included a $1.1-million performance bonus, down 10 per cent from a year earlier.
This puts him at the top of the three in terms of total compensation, with Bell CEO Mirko Bibic earning $13.43-million and Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri earning $14.1-million.
“It’s important to note that as part of his commitment and alignment to shareholders, Darren takes all of his salary in shares, and owns 10 times his salary in shares, significantly higher than the Telus requirement of seven times and five times his salary, which is more market typical,” Ms. Sauvé said.
Half of Mr. Entwistle’s long-term incentives are linked to customer growth and shareholder return, she added.
In last week’s proxy circular, Telus said the company “considered the criticality of retaining Darren” to guide the expansion of the company’s portfolio of growth companies, which include the company’s health and agriculture divisions, as it continued a succession process “that includes development of internal succession candidates.”
With a report from Reuters