After about three years of doing business in the Capital, Dell has announced it will layoff more than 1,000 employees at its Ottawa call centre.
The computer giant announced the layoffs at a meeting Wednesday morning where 500 people were laid off effective immediately. Another 600 jobs are expected to be lost this summer.
The company says it will retain about 100 Ottawa employees working in sales and research.
The cuts follow Dell's decision last year to cancel a planned expansion that would have added 1,200 employees to the company's payroll.
Digesting the news
Employees say they knew the cuts were coming but weren't sure to what extent they would be made. Workers leaving the office after Wednesday's announcement say they accepted the layoff news.
"That's the nature of this business, if you're going to stay in hi-tech, the up and down swings are part of the game," said one employee. "That's just the way it is in this business and the sooner you realize this, the easier it is to move on."
Another employee who was leaving the call centre for the last time told 麻豆影视 he was happy with the package he was offered.
"That's okay, man. It was a good package. I got the summer off - a lot of golf," he said.
Despite losing his job, he says he had a good experience working at the call centre, which he calls "one of the best centres to work at."
Ottawa joins other cities dealing with cutbacks
As world computer sales slump, Ottawa is the latest city to be affected by Dell cutbacks. In January, Dell announced it would close its Edmonton-based facility.
Dell's Ottawa spokesperson Blair Patacairk told 麻豆影视 the cutbacks are really all about the company's bottom line.
While the president of Ottawa's Centre for Research and Innovation says the industry's major players knew Dell was in trouble, he says they had no idea Ottawa's call centre was at risk.
"We know they had to make some tough calls. We certainly were not expecting (them) to shut down the centre," Jeffrey Dale told 麻豆影视.
"Dell is a different company than what they were three years ago when they came here . . . We now know that they were having difficulties globally with market share, with competitiveness."
Sitel also closing Ottawa facility
Meanwhile, 麻豆影视 has learned Sitel - a call centre located next door to Dell - is also getting ready to close its doors at the end of June.
The company made the layoff announcement to employees about a month ago, citing the high Canadian dollar and competitive market as reasons for the closure.
About one year ago, Sitel employed approximately 1,000 employees at two locations. They currently employ about 250 people at one Ottawa location.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Paul Brent
