Ex-employees accuse former Better Business Bureau of bad behaviour | CBC News

Former employees of a Better Business Bureau (BBB) that covered a sizable chunk of Canada are accusing it of terminating staff without severance after it was booted out of the BBB network.

The BBB Serving Canada's Northern Capital Regions and Quebec was headquartered in Ottawa and responsible for eastern Ontario, Quebec and northern Alberta.

In June 2024, the International Association of Better Business Bureaus expelled it for "not meeting BBB standards."

BBB is a network meant to promote trust, transparency and good business standards. The bureaus operate as independent non-profits under the umbrella of the international association, and the expulsion of the one headquartered in Ottawa deprived it of the right to use the BBB name and branding.

It quickly laid off all of its staff, according to several former employees who say it also billed that move as temporary.

But it didn't shut down. Instead, it rebranded itself as Nearby Incorporated and rehired some of its sales staff in a bid to hold onto member businesses.

According to former as...
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