Anyone on SC in Oshawa that worked for IQT?

[mamajules]

Source: http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/181544

OSHAWA -- At least 400 people are without jobs after a local call centre shut its doors early Friday morning.

IQT Solutions at 199 Wentworth St. E. in Oshawa reportedly went bankrupt, prompting Bell Canada to pull the plug on a contract with the company, according to former employees.

"This morning about 10 a.m., I got a phone call that IQT had gone into receivership," says site director Clyde Haggart, joining a herd of workers gathered in front of the building on July 15.

"They couldn't make payroll, no one's getting paid and we're done."
A phone call made to Jon Joseph, listed as vice-president of business development for IQT on the company's website, was not immediately returned.

Bell Canada spokesman Jason Laszlo confirmed that IQT is a third party call centre provider but would not comment further on the details of the contract.

“We don’t own or operate that call centre so I can’t discuss the details of our agreements with our suppliers, however, Bell is growing its customer service and other teams so we will accommodate IQT employees where we can.”

The news came out of left field for the stunned workers when they started their shift at 8 a.m. and again for those who arrived at noon.
"I thought it was a bomb threat because of everybody standing outside and eight police cars there to control the crowd," says Lisa Gordon, an employee at the location for two years.

"They let us go inside and we were told to get our stuff and go back out."
IQT purchased the Durham Contact Centre from Durham College in 2009. The centre handled customer service for Bell Canada. A job fair held by IQT two years ago was packed with candidates vying for jobs, providing a silver lining in the gloomy recession.

Kaitlin Bush of Whitby says when she was hired at the call centre in January, the company appeared to be flourishing. Two hundred new jobs had been created only a few months earlier.

"They told us that this is a great time to start working at the company, that it was expanding. They had dreams to take over the whole building and six months later, it's done."

There were no signs that the end was near for the employees, who say they recently underwent two weeks of training for a new system.
"We were always told Bell is very impressed with how we're doing," says Arielle Arsenault, an employee at IQT for nearly a year. "None of us expected this to happen."

Many of the workers had been looking forward to receiving their pay cheques for the last four weeks of work when they were informed of the closure.

Oshawa resident Jennie Mergl had planned to buy groceries after work to support her seven children.

"I think everybody has a right to be angry with no notice and no nothing, just to come into work and be told you don't have a job and you're not getting paid," she says.

Mr. Haggart adds he's not sure of the next steps for the laid-off workers but will put in every effort to assist them.
"It will be either following the steps of EI or going to the labour board to see if we can get jobs at other call centres or some sort of customer service position because all these people are very skilled in that and it's a shame."

The Oshawa call centre is one of four IQT locations, which include two in Quebec and one in the United States.

[mamajules]

unfortunatly my boyfriend worked for this company and today was a horrible horrible day not only has he lost his job but he also did not get
paid today! this is extremely unfortunate for families like ours who were
depending on todays paycheck!

[lshortt]

both my son and his girlfriend worked there and it is devestating