HALIFAX – A BlackBerry employee who will soon be out of work said the staff knew the move to cut jobs at the Bedford, N.S. office was coming.
The employee, who spoke to Global News on the condition of anonymity, is frustrated by the severance packages being offered, and said many people will get the same deal regardless of how long they have worked with the company.
On Thursday, BlackBerry announced it was shutting down its Bedford office in a move that will put about 350 people out of work.
The employee said if staff quit before the Jan. 10, 2014 close date or get let go because of job performance, they will not get anything at all.
On top of that, laid-off employees will have to compete with their colleagues for jobs — though if social media is any indicator, tech companies in town will welcome them with open arms.
“It is Ambir’s gain,” said Ambir CEO Ian Cavanagh. Ambir is an IT consulting company that currently employs 60 people across several offices in the Maritimes.
Get daily National news
“It is still clearly a loss for the region. We don’t have an economy that can easily absorb 300-plus people overnight, but we will find opportunities for these people. I hope, over time, this will benefit Atlantic Canada and our tech sector generally.”
READ MORE: A look back at BlackBerry’s history
Kula Partners, which does marketing and web design, said some BlackBerry employees have already applied for open positions at the company.
But there are worries there is not enough supply to meet demand.
“It is a lot of highly skilled people and there aren’t necessarily that many jobs to take them up immediately,” said Kula Partners CEO Jeff White.
“Unfortunately we will lose some of that great talent out of the region.”
The CEOs said the closure of the Bedford office isn’t good news for the industry as a whole, but they don’t think the technology industry in Halifax will take a hit.
“The thing about the tech sector is we tend to be largely entrepreneurial,” said White.
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said the Bedford building on Innovation Drive will remain and pointed out that IBM has already taken over some of the space.
“We all know that BlackBerry has had some troubles globally. It wasn’t a Halifax situation — it was a global situation,” he said.
WATCH: Premier-designate Stephen McNeil talks about the closing of Blackberry’s Bedford office.
BlackBerry has said the company will repay the province $2 million it invested this year.
On Friday, the new provincial government said it will review the file to ensure taxpayers aren’t owed any money.
“We’ve raised some concerns before about the way we do economic development in this province,” said Premier-designate Stephen McNeil.
“This is a case in point. The terms and conditions were not met.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.