LAYOFF NOTICE

80 ISM employees hit by ‘transformation.’

Information Systems Management Canada (ISM) will be laying off 80 employees, just under 10 per cent of its workforce, over the next six months as the company enters a transitional phase.

The IT company issued the notice to employees on Tuesday morning. Although it has offices in BC, Alberta and Manitoba, the majority of the employees affected are in Saskatchewan.

For the past year the company has been in the process of transforming itself to focus more on business solutions.

“As part of that process the company has also identified business lines that it needs to transition out of because they’re becoming less profitable for the organization, and they’re not strategic for the organization going forward,” said Virginia Wilkinson, director of communications for ISM.

Those business lines that ISM is moving away from include print and mail services, computer operations and production control.

To assist employees given layoff notices ISM has hired career transition consultants, who were at its Regina office on Tuesday.

Unifor Saskatchewan Local 911, the union which represents more than 300 ISM workers in Saskatchewan, confirmed its members were affected by the layoffs, but declined to comment any further. “That’s going to be my statement to you. We’re not commenting at this point,” said Kate McKinley, national representative for the local.

The union is scheduled to have a general membership meeting tonight.

In December last year, ISM employees came close to being in a legal position to issue a 48-hour strike notice as the company and union struggled to reach an agreement on a new contract. A point of contention during negotiations were wage increases. A contract was ratified on Jan. 14, and included a 5.5-per-cent pay increase over the next three years and a “modest increase in selected benefits.” But Wilkinson said the close timing of the ratification and layoffs was coincidental.

“We were just pleased to have a ratification happen, but there is no link at all,” she said.