Cenovus moves ahead with layoffs following fatality at Christina Lake

Already reeling from a series of job losses, Cenovus employees say a decision to reverse a delay in some layoffs following a workplace death comes as another blow to morale at the energy giant.

In an internal online message sent to staff Wednesday, Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix said some layoffs announced in December would be postponed in light of a fatality Tuesday at the company’s Christina Lake oilsands site.

The death of the third party contractor occurred in a mishap involving a hauling truck and drilling rig at the location about 350 km northeast of Edmonton.

“Out of respect, all staff reductions planned for the rest of this week are postponed until further notice,” wrote Pourbaix, adding the company’s thoughts are with the worker’s family and friends and colleagues.

“It hits all of us hard hearing that someone did not go home safely from one of our sites ... I recognize there is a lot of change at the company right now that is causing additional stress.”

He goes on to urge staff to use company counselling resources if necessary.

But on Thursday, a company email said at least four layoffs in the company ’s finance department would go ahead this week anyway.

“I realize Alex’s message yesterday about the Christina Lake fatality referencing staff reductions planned for this week being postponed, however, it was felt it was important to make these changes now as opposed to waiting any longer,” wrote Senior Vice President and Comptroller Neil Robertson.

It’s a move considered disrespectful to the oilsands worker killed and demoralizing to employees already being whipsawed by a battery of layoff announcements, said one Cenovus staffer.

“It was a shocker, especially after the CEO put out that message, nobody was expecting it,” said the employee, who wouldn’t give their name out of fear for their own job.

“There are people here pretty angry and upset ... if you make that message, you stick to it.”

Following the oil price plunge in 2014, the company laid off a total of

It’s never easy to let people go and the people leaving the company are all good people.

nearly 2,000 employees in 2015-16 while the latest round, expected to reduce its payroll by 15%, will see 500-700 jobs axed.

Cenovus spokesman Brett Harris wouldn’t comment on the layoff about-face.

“It’s all internal stuff, it’s not stuff we’d comment on,” he said.

“We’d planned this process that’s started in the new year and it’s ongoing — it’s never easy to let people go and the people leaving the company are all good people.”

But he said a larger number of layoffs planned for this week remain postponed as Pourbaix’s memo suggested.

He said the current round of layoffs should be mostly complete by the end of March