Telus Job Cuts Spark Fears Over Service Quality and Economic Impact

BURNABY, BC – January 09, 2026 – By Laura Harris

Canadian telecommunications giant Telus has begun the new year by offering voluntary severance packages (VSPs) to nearly 700 employees, sparking sharp condemnation from unions and raising fresh concerns about the future of service quality for Canadian businesses and consumers.

The move, which the United Steelworkers union (USW) branded a "New Year’s gut punch," primarily targets workers in the Telus Business Solutions division across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. More than 500 of the VSPs have been offered to members of USW Local 1944, which represents approximately 4,000 Telus employees. Affected workers have been given a tight deadline of January 21 to decide whether to accept the packages, a decision that carries significant weight for hundreds of families and the communities they live in.

This latest round of workforce reductions is part of a larger, ongoing trend at the company, which has shed thousands of jobs over the past decade in a persistent drive for efficiency and cost reduction.

Union Sounds the Alarm on Service Erosion

The United Steelworkers union has been vocal in its opposition, directly linking the job cuts to a potential decline in the quality of service provided to Canadians. Michael Phillips, President of USW Local 1944, argued that the decision will inevitably harm both the economy and the customer experience.

“Further workforce reductions at Telus will hurt communities and the Canadian economy, and will only exacerbate Canadians’ growing dissatisfaction with the service they’re receiving from telecommunications companies,” Phillips stated in a press release. He pointed to a significant increase in customer grievances, noting, “Complaints from Telus customers to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services rose by 62% in 2025 compared to 2024.”

While the union's figure for 2025 is not yet verifiable through public annual reports, the most recent available data from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) for the 2023-2024 period showed Telus complaints had actually decreased, accounting for 8.3% of all issues accepted by the watchdog, down from 9.9% the previous year. The discrepancy highlights the tension between internal union tracking and official, year-end public reporting, but the core concern about service degradation remains a central point of contention.

“Canadians are not happy with the quality of service they’re getting at the moment, and Telus cutting jobs is not going to help,” Phillips added, placing the responsibility for oversight on federal regulators.

A Strategy of Cuts Amid Financial Crosswinds

The severance offers are not happening in a vacuum. They are the latest step in a broader, aggressive cost-cutting strategy Telus has been pursuing. Just last August, the company announced a major restructuring plan to eliminate 6,000 positions across its Canadian and international operations, representing about 6% of its global workforce. At the time, the company projected these cuts would generate over $325 million in annual cost savings.

Telus’s financial reports paint a complex picture. In its third-quarter results for 2025, the company celebrated strong customer growth, adding a record 320,000 new subscribers for its mobile, internet, and security services. Consolidated operating revenue saw a modest increase of 2.7%. However, beneath these top-line gains, profitability has been squeezed. The company’s net income for the same quarter fell by 39% compared to the previous year, a drop attributed to rising costs related to depreciation, financing, and taxes.

In public statements, Telus leadership has consistently framed these workforce reductions as a necessary measure to navigate a “rapidly changing industry and macroeconomic environment.” The stated goal is to accelerate its digital transformation and automation efforts, which the company believes will streamline operations, enhance productivity, and ultimately improve the customer experience through digital self-serve options. This strategy, however, is now facing intense scrutiny from its own workforce, who argue that experienced human capital is being sacrificed for bottom-line efficiencies.

The Federal Role and the Productivity Debate

The USW has also directed criticism toward the federal government, arguing it has been passive while a critical national industry erodes its domestic workforce. “The federal government keeps saying we have a productivity problem in Canada. They should be ensuring higher telecom services standards for business, rather than standing by as companies like Telus cut business services,” Phillips said.

Ottawa's role in regulating the telecom sector, primarily through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and the CRTC, has historically focused on fostering competition, ensuring affordability, and expanding network access. Direct intervention to protect jobs within private corporations has not been a central pillar of its policy. Instead, the government has promoted investment in infrastructure, such as rural broadband, with the indirect benefit of job creation.

This hands-off approach to corporate staffing creates a policy paradox. While the government champions innovation and productivity gains, which often involve automation and workforce reduction, it is also faced with the social and economic fallout of job displacement in well-paying sectors. The debate continues over whether the public good is best served by allowing market forces to dictate efficiency or by implementing stronger regulations to protect both jobs and service standards in an essential industry.

A Sector in Profound Transformation

The job cuts at Telus are symptomatic of a profound, technology-driven shift occurring across the entire telecommunications industry. Analysts note that companies are under immense pressure from intense market competition and the high capital costs of deploying next-generation networks like 5G. In response, they are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation to handle tasks in customer service, network monitoring, and back-office administration.

This pivot is creating a skills gap, where traditional roles are becoming obsolete while demand for workers with advanced digital and technical expertise grows. Experts suggest that without significant investment in retraining and upskilling programs from both corporations and government, displaced workers will struggle to transition to new roles. The ongoing consolidation in the Canadian market, exemplified by the recent Rogers-Shaw merger, further intensifies the pressure on all major players to streamline operations and reduce costs to remain competitive.

For now, the nearly 700 Telus employees weighing their severance options are at the forefront of this industrial evolution, caught between a company's push for a digital future and a union's fight to preserve jobs and the human element of customer service.