The union representing a number of employees who have been let go at Vancity Credit Union says the layoffs happened without its prior knowledge.
Roughly 30 of the 200 employees subject to this week’s layoff notices belong to the BCGEU, which claims the credit union violated labour law by not giving the union a heads-up about the layoffs.
Vancity cited market conditions as a reason for the layoffs, but union president Paul Finch questions this.
“I don’t think that the current market conditions were a surprise,” he said.
“I think that Vancity has been slow to adapt to those conditions. And again, it shouldn’t be our members that suffer as a result of that.”
Credit unions bring unique advantages to the province, which Vancity should have leveraged, Finch says. Instead, he says, Vancity’s approach has been both frustrating and surprising.
“They’re touted as being committed to the community,” he said.
“They’re always touting themselves as one of the best employers in Canada. Well, they certainly tried to establish that as their branding. But I think that wouldn’t be the experience of of their employees, in particular our members that work there.”
Finch also fears the layoffs will result in longer waits to get service.
Vancity announced the layoffs Thursday, saying 200 employees — representing about seven per cent of its workforce — were being let go as part of a restructuring.
Vancity is not saying which divisions or which of its 50 B.C. branches will be impacted.
CityNews has reached out to Vancity for comment.