NDP: Sears must pay workers instead of bonuses

OTTAWA – New Democrats are calling on Sears Canada to halt bonuses for executives and instead pay the severance due to laid-off workers. Consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments have failed to fix the legislation that allows companies like Sears to pay top executives a bonus instead of paying severance due to workers when facing bankruptcy.

“This is shameful and obscene. How does Sears justify paying performance bonuses to top executives of a company that is filing for bankruptcy?” asked Scott Duvall, NDP Pensions Critic. “That money should be going to the thousands of workers who have just lost their jobs.”

Sears Canada will pay $7.6 million in bonuses to 43 executives while 2,900 employees are laid off without severance. Like other large multinational corporations, Sears is permitted under Canada’s bankruptcy laws, to pay big bonuses to their executives instead of being forced to pay severance of the workers the company has laid-off.

“This government loves to talk about the middle class but time and again they put corporations first and then ask Canadian workers to settle for less. That’s unacceptable,” added Karine Trudel, NDP Deputy Labour Critic. “Canadians can count on New Democrats to keep fighting so that corporations can’t steal the severances their workers have earned.”