Bell Canada Offers Buyouts to 1,500

TORONTO -- Bell Canada (BCE Quote) said Tuesday it is offering retirement incentives to 1,500 qualifying union workers in the latest move by Canada's largest telecom operator to streamline and cut operating costs.

Bell Canada is trying to become more competitive in the wake of last month's failure of a failed offer to acquire its parent, BCE Inc., by an investment group led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan board.

The retirement incentive offer affects workers represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers' Union of Canada.

Bell Canada, which has more than 41,000 employees, said the retirement offer is not an early retirement program, since it applies only to workers who meet certain criteria and are already eligible to retire this year and in 2010. It didn't give details on the incentives.

The telecom company said it plans to stagger the dates on which these employees retire, to ensure there is no impact on service to customers.

Telecom analyst Carmi Levy of AR Communications said that BCE will likely issue further cuts as it reworks operations.

"This is what Bell has to do in order to align themselves with the times," he said.

"In the old days, you could afford to have a relatively top-heavy internal structure with a lot of management, well-compensated unionized rank and file, (and) a very rich cost structure."

However, times have changed for the industry and it has forced Bell to catch up with competitors as more Canadians move toward an Internet-driven telecommunications market, Levy said.