Fired Bell Workers Call Their Dismissals a Sham — and They’re Heading to Court

A group of former Bell Canada employees is pushing back hard against claims that they faked their office attendance, and some are preparing to take the company to court over it.

Bell fired the workers for what it’s calling “swipe and go” behaviour: badging into the office and then leaving without putting in a full day. But many of the terminated employees claim that’s not the whole story, and that Bell is using the misconduct label as a way to avoid paying out severance. Some employees even apparently swiped in to use the gym only, then went home.

But Jean-Alexandre De Bousquet, an employment lawyer representing at least 30 of the fired workers, says his clients had been working remotely for years, in some cases over 10 years. When Bell introduced new in-office requirements, he argues, many employees never signed on to them. “This is a unilateral change to their working conditions,” he said.

According to several workers who spoke to CBC News, their direct supervisors were often in the loop. De Bousquet says some managers outright told employees they didn’t need to stay the full day. Just swipe in and get to work, wherever that happened to be.

“They were getting different and contradictory messages,” he said. His clients believed they were following guidance from their own leadership, not breaking the rules. The workers believe they were fired for misconduct so Bell would not have to pay them severance.

Bell has since confirmed that managers who allowed the practice were also let go.

“This is a big money-saving move for Bell, fire all those people for cause and pay them nothing,” De Bousquet said. He’s currently filing claims in both Ontario and Quebec courts.

Bell spokesperson Luc Levasseur said to CBC News it has “clear evidence” of wrongdoing. The employees say they were doing what they’d always done, often with their bosses’ blessing, and that their years of remote-first culture were being used against them.