Via Rail announced Wednesday the decision to temporarily lay off approximately 1,000 unionized employees.
President and Chief Executive Officer Cynthia Garneau says this year has been filled with unprecedented challenges, first the blockades in February and now the ongoing pandemic, and they don’t anticipate ridership to be back to pre-COVID levels in the foreseeable future, leading them to make the difficult decision to lay off employees.
The company says they have observed recent positive developments in service resumption but many routes are still interrupted.
The employees affected will receive a temporary written layoff notice, which respects the terms of the collective agreements and these temporary layoffs will take effect on July 24, 2020.
