Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Former Canwest workers protest severance pay..

Not only are workers losing their jobs during the recession and still doing so when the recession is supposedly over but they are losing benefits as well. Not only investors lose during bankruptcy proceedings but so do the workers as is evident in this case. There should be some type of insurance fund so that when these events happen the workers still get their contractual entitlements.


Former Canwest workers protest outside court hearing issues of severance
(CP) –
TORONTO — Former employees of Canwest Global Communications are demonstrating outside a downtown Toronto courthouse where lawyers are discussing their severance pay.
About 100 former Canwest staff and union members are outside the court with signs calling for their severance payments to be resumed.
It's the first time that the court has talked in detail about the money owed to Canwest staff who were laid off from the media conglomerate, which filed for creditor protection in some of its divisions earlier this month.
Their severance payments were essentially locked up when Canwest filed for creditor protection, and former workers will have to line up with all others who are owed money by Canwest to make a claim.
A lawyer proposing to represent former Canwest staff who were members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union asked the judge to grant funding to help the union pay for lawyers.
He says the CEP can't afford to foot the legal bills because it has lost many of its paying members in the economic downturn.

No comments: