OFL Demands Action and Answers from All Parties Involved in IQT Fiasco

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 20, 2011) - OFL President Sid Ryan is demanding immediate and specific answers from Bell Canada about IQT Solutions - what it knows about the company, whether it had any prior knowledge of IQT's intentions to flee Canada without paying its workforce, what its plans are with respect to its business relationship with IQT and employment for Oshawa's 400 workers who have been left without pay.

The OFL is also demanding to know where the work has gone. "Someone has got to be doing it. Who is it?"

Ryan has also been on the phone with the Leader of Canada's Official Opposition Jack Layton to ensure the highest possible priority for the file and swift action to help push for the services, programs, wages and other entitlements for the now stranded workforce.

Federal and provincial governments must also be held accountable says Ryan who has been in close and ongoing contact with Ontario's Labour Ministry.

"IQT is rotten at its very core. How did it even get a green light to do business in Canada? We want answers and action and will pursue every avenue in Canada, the U.S. and globally to get these workers paid and this company stopped from doing any further damage," says Ryan.

In the meantime, the OFL is demanding full and immediate support for workers. For starters, the federal government MUST IMMEDIATELY flow the wages owed to the workers under its Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP). In addition, WEPP must be significantly reformed to raise the current maximum payout of $3400 and expanded to allow for claims when a company closes, not just for formal bankruptcies and receiverships. "We want this extended to all workers who find themselves in these same desperate circumstances," notes Ryan.

"The labour movement's victory yesterday with Nashville's announcement that is halting plans for $1.6 million grant earmarked for IQT is a great start to what will no doubt become a global labour initiative to run the company to ground anywhere it is doing business," says Ryan.

The OFL will issue further releases throughout the day as it discovers more information.