The Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) was recently advised by TELUS of its plans to further contract out initiatives and offer separation packages to employees across several departments within the company.

"The TWU is disappointed that TELUS continues to downsize good Canadian jobs in Canadian communities," said George Doubt, TWU National President. "While TELUS asserts that many of these initiatives are the result of a decline in business, the TWU knows that TELUS continues to expand its overseas operations."

The changes include the following:

- 65 packages will be offered to the Customer Premise Systems (CPS) Implementation Group in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

- Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) eligible employees in the Wide Area Network (WAN) Implementation Group in the Lower Mainland will be offered packages. TELUS is not offering voluntary separation packages (VSPs) to non-ERIP eligible employees in this group. However, if you are in this group and would like a package, please notify your Business Agent.

- 13 packages will be offered to the members in the External Technology Rollover Group. This group is having the remainder of their work contracted out.

- 25 employees in the National Tier 3 Team will be offered packages. These employees are all located in the Lower Mainland.

- 15 members from the Internal Support Team in the Lower Mainland will be offered packages.

- 45 members in the Lower Mainland Centrex/Media Access Control (MAC) Repair group will be offered packages.

- Approximately 20 members in the Technical Support Assistant IV & Network Service Escalation Clerk IV job titles in Calgary will be offered packages.

- 35 members in the Customer Service Delivery (CSD) Frames group in Edmonton will be offered packages.

- 30 members in the Production Services/Console Operations group in the Lower Mainland will be offered packages.

- 23 members from the Network Applications & Services Team will be offered packages with some of this work moving to TELUS International.

If you have any questions about the above initiatives, contact your TWU Business Agent.