Canada Post laid off nearly 50 management employees as part of a restructuring effort earlier this week, the corporation says, in an effort to manage its “critical financial situation.”
About half of the staff laid off were based in Ottawa. Others worked in Toronto and elsewhere. Canada Post said the move will not impact service to Canadians.
Canada Post’s financial challenges were a key sticking point in strike negotiations with the workers’ union late last year. The corporation’s third-quarter statement recorded a $313-million loss, and said it expected “increasingly unsustainable losses” in the coming years. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) confirmed to CTV News that the managers were not members of its syndicate.
“Since we began bargaining,” wrote a union spokesperson, “the Union has questioned why postal workers have been asked to bear the responsibility of fixing the financial situation the Corporation finds itself in when Canada Post has a sizeable number of senior executives who make significantly more money and receive bonuses.”
Canada Post says it will continue to evaluate its labour costs and work with the federal government to return the company to solvency.
“Canada Post continues to take steps to minimize the impact on employees, with a management hiring freeze in place since last year and reviewing vacant positions when employees retire or leave the company voluntarily,” a Canada Post spokesperson said in an email to CTV News.
The crown corporation’s financial woes were widely publicized during the union’s four-week strike late last year, which halted mail delivery across the country. It only ended after the Canada Industrial Relations Board determined negotiations were in a stalemate and ordered employees back to work under their existing contracts.
This is the second major round of restructuring reported so far this year. In January, 20 per cent of its senior executive roles were eliminated. The union lamented senior layoffs occurred when they did.
“It is disappointing (that the) three senior managers who were let go last month did not get to participate in the Industrial Inquiry Commission hearings, as they would have been best positioned to provide answers about the decisions made by Canada Post which resulted in its less-than-ideal financial situation,” wrote CUPW spokesperson Emilie Tobin.
Also in January, the federal government gave Canada Post a $1-billion loan to help keep the corporation afloat. At the time, Canada Post said the loan would help it continue operating but would not solve its structural issues. Its finances have been eroding since 2018 due to “rapid” industry changes and “high labour costs.”
