Roughly 1,200 employees leave Rogers as part of voluntary departure program after Shaw takeover

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Roughly 1,200 employees have left Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T as part of a voluntary staff departure program launched to eliminate duplicate roles after the telecom’s $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc.

Earlier this month, the Toronto-based telecom offered to provide departure packages to employees in certain areas of the business should they decide to leave the company. The last work day for those who applied for the packages and were accepted was July 21.

According to a person familiar with the matter, 660 Rogers employees and 541 former Shaw employees left the combined company on that date. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The 660 Rogers departures represent 3 per cent of the company’s 22,000 active employees as of Dec. 31, 2022. The 541 departures from Shaw represent 6 per cent of the company’s roughly 9,000 staff members.

A spokesperson for Rogers declined to comment on the figures.

In a memo to employees on Wednesday, Rogers chief executive Tony Staffieri said the company will continue to eliminate overlapping roles after seeing only a “modest uptake” of the voluntary staff departure program.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to thoughtfully review our organizational structure and address any overlap in roles,” Mr. Staffieri said in the memo, which was obtained by The Globe.

The Globe previously reported that the company had eliminated some positions before it began offering departure packages, and that additional job reductions were planned. Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, a Canadian law firm that specializes in employment law, has said that many Rogers and Shaw employees have contacted it in the past month, claiming to have been laid off because of restructuring related to the deal.

In the lead-up to the takeover, politicians and industry observers voiced concerns about job losses, because Rogers was expected to seek efficiencies during its integration with Calgary-based Shaw. The two companies previously estimated that the deal would result in $1-billion worth of synergies.

On Wednesday, when Rogers reported its second-quarter financial results, Mr. Staffieri said during a conference call that the Shaw integration was ahead of schedule, and that Rogers had already realized roughly a quarter, or $48-million, of the $200-million of cost savings that it has forecast for this year.

Glenn Brandt, the telecom’s chief financial officer, told analysts that those synergies have come primarily from savings relating to its third-party vendors, “as well as early efforts on removing the duplication and driving efficiencies across our in-house operations.”

When Mr. Staffieri announced the voluntary departure program earlier this month, he said the telecom would continue hiring new staff in order to build its networks and support its customers.

“We’re a growth company, and we remain committed to creating thousands of jobs over the next few years as we invest in our customers, communities and country,” he said at the time.

In order to secure regulatory approval for its takeover, which closed in April, Rogers promised to create 3,000 new jobs in Western Canada within five years, and to maintain a Calgary headquarters for at least a decade.

Although Mr. Staffieri has said the company will also eliminate positions in areas of duplication, he has noted that on a net basis the takeover will result in more jobs, as the telecom redeploys its resources in growth areas.

Not all employees were eligible for the voluntary departure program. Most corporate and line-of-business roles up to the senior director level were eligible, while most customer-facing roles, media production roles and critical support functions were not.

Rogers reported revenue of $5.05-billion for the three-month period ended June 30, up 30 per cent from the same period last year, while its profit fell 73 per cent to $109-million, or 20 cents a share.

After adjusting for depreciation and amortization, as well as other items, the company made $544-million in profit, up from $463-million. The adjusted earnings amounted to $1.02 a share, up from 86 cents.