The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that BCE plans to lay off nearly 700 non-union employees as part of its three-year strategy to reduce leverage and focus on growth, continuing a trend of job cuts in the telecom sector. The Globe's Irene Galea writes that BCE announced layoffs affecting about 650 management positions at Bell Canada (under 2 per cent of its work force) and 40 roles at Bell Media (under 1 per cent of its employees). The Bell Media cuts are "predominantly" in corporate departments, BCE said, as opposed to on-air talent. They include four news management roles based in Toronto. BCE is contending with sluggish top-line growth and $35-billion in long-term debt as of Sept. 30. In May, executives halved the dividend payout -- widely seen as unsustainable -- in order to allocate that cash elsewhere. "We regularly assess and make changes to our team structure. As a result, we made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce the number of non-unionized management positions across the company to better align our team structure with our growth plan," said BCE spokesman Luc Levasseur on Thursday. BCE said it is continuing to invest in its strategic priority areas to expand the business.