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Craig Wong
Canadian Press


Wednesday, September 21, 2005


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VANCOUVER (CP) - Telus Corp. is going to start using call centres in the Philippines and India on a temporary basis to help maintain its customer service due to a two-month old labour dispute with its union.

In a letter to the Telecommunications Workers Union president Bruce Bell, Telus executive vice-president Judy Shuttleworth wrote that Telus Communications would be directing some customer care and operator services calls to Telus International's call centre in the Philippines.

"In addition, for the duration of the labour disruption, Telus Mobility will be directing some client-care calls to a call centre operated by a supplier in India," Shuttleworth wrote.

Employees at Canadian call centres are expected to continue to handle about 80 per cent of operator service and customer-care calls.

Shuttleworth wrote in her letter that the company stood by an earlier commitment to employment security that said no "regular employee will be laid off as a direct result of the company contracting out work that is normally and currently performed by bargaining unit employees."

However, Peter Massy, vice-president of the TWU, said the contract language that Telus has on the bargaining table will not prevent them from using the call centres in the same way after the labour dispute is over.

"I have no doubt that when it comes to this telephone company, when it comes to work predominantly done by women, if they can contract it out and get rid of it they will," Massy said in an interview from Victoria.

Massy accused the company of going to the Philippines and India after trying to hire replacement workers on university campuses and in Eastern Canada

"They're certainly not doing it to try and resolve the labour dispute," he said.

About 11,500 unionized Telus workers in Alberta and B.C. have been off the job since July 21, a day before the company imposed a contract on the workers after years of failed negotiations.

The company calls it a strike; the workers call it a lockout.

The union, which represents 13,500 Telus workers, has said key issues include job security and wage equity.

The dispute came to a head after the company said it would implement an April 13 offer - including raises of two per cent annually for five years - in an attempt to end the dispute.

Telus shares (TSX:T) closed down nine cents at $47.51 in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

© The Canadian Press 2005

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