The job losses at Rogers follow a sharp decrease in the company’s employee count in 2023.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T dropped 2,000 more jobs in 2024, the company’s annual report shows, at a time when Canada’s largest telecoms are slimming down their operations following technology enhancements and amid an overall industry slowdown.
As of the end of 2024, Rogers had 24,000 employees, down from 26,000 the previous year, the report says. The company said its annual salary and benefit costs declined by about $150-million, from $2.45-billion in 2023 to $2.3-billion in 2024.
“Over the course of any given year, some employees decide to leave the company for other opportunities and some retire. Last year, we also offered a voluntary departure program for some employees. We continue to hire staff and remain committed to creating thousands of jobs over the next few years,” said Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro in a statement. It isn’t clear how many of the job reductions were layoffs.
The job losses follow a sharp decline in the company’s employee count in the previous year. Company figures suggest that more than 3,000 overall Rogers or former Shaw employees had their jobs cut or left the company in 2023, the year the merger took place, The Globe reported in December.
As part of Rogers’s commitments to Ottawa in exchange for its approval of its 2023 acquisition of Shaw, the company agreed to create 3,000 new jobs in Western Canada and maintain them for five years. Speaking to the federal industry committee last December, chief executive officer Tony Staffieri said the company had created 1,800 jobs to that point.
In recent weeks, Rogers laid off customer service employees serving its online chat system.
Rogers isn’t the only company with a shrinking overall work force. In February, Telus Corp. T-T offered severance packages to more than 1,000 employees across the country, and BCE Inc. BCE-T offered buyouts to 1,200 staff members. The telecoms have said the reductions are the result of more efficient networks that require less maintenance and support, and advancements in technology.
In 2024, Rogers posted overall revenue growth of 7 per cent, with wireless revenue up 4 per cent, and media revenue rose 6 per cent. The company said it invested $4-billion in capital expenditures last year.
In February, the company issued about $4-billion of new debt in order to repay maturing notes and to partially fund the acquisition of BCE Inc.’s $4.7-billion share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which is currently awaiting league and regulatory approvals.
Rogers, like its rival BCE, is also carrying significant debt – a total of nearly $45-billion as of Dec. 31 – and a high leverage ratio of 4.5 times its EBITDA. The company is aiming to pay down that debt by raising $7-billion in a structured equity deal with an institutional investor, revealed by The Globe to be New York-based private equity fund manager Blackstone Inc. The delayed deal is currently being negotiated.
In its annual report, Rogers said it expects to satisfy foreseeable funding requirements through cash provided by operating activities and additional financing. Depending on market conditions, this could include restructuring existing credit, or issuing new debt or equity, the company said.
The company listed a number of risks and uncertainties facing the business, including consumers’ shifting attention to digital media and industry competition. And while it currently plans to finance a portion of the MLSE deal with private funding, it may need to fund the deal through debt or equity, the company warned.
Since the company’s last annual report, the company added a chief information and cybersecurity officer, Iain Kennedy, and a new chief technology officer, Mark Kennedy, replacing Ron McKenzie, previously heading both departments. Anne Martin-Vachon became the new head of wireless.
Diane Kazarian, previously managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada, joined the board, as did Bradley Shaw, previous chief executive officer of Shaw, and Chief Wayne Sparrow, chair of the Musqueam Capital Corporation.