Bell Canada offers retirement deal to 1,500

Bell Canada is issuing a retirement incentive offer to about 1,500 union employees, a move that comes just weeks after the proposed acquisition of the Canadian telco's parent firm, Bell Canada Enterprises, collapsed. The company is not calling it an "early retirement" offer because it is only for a collection of employees for whom retirement is imminent-this year and next year. The company currently has about 41,000 employees. The telco last year announced about 2,500 job cuts, primarily affecting management positions. BCE certainly had been tightening its belt in anticipation of a takeover last year, and it has been reported in the past that even though the deal fell apart, such cost-cutting moves had left the company well positioned for the future.

For more:
- The Associated Press has this report

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