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August 8th, 2019

One Year Later: Sears Retirees Getting Ripped Off While Trudeau Sides with Corporation

New Democrats want a new deal for Sears Canada retirees

OTTAWA – On the first year anniversary of when retirees officially had their pensions slashed by 30 percent following the bankruptcy and closure of Sears Canada, the NDP is still fighting for a new deal for these workers.

When the company shut down its doors in 2018, 18,000 retirees discovered the pension plans built with their money would not pay out as planned. The NDP’s New Deal for People will ensure that pensioners are at the front of the line when a company goes bankrupt – making sure unfunded pension liabilities owed to workers, and employees’ severance pay, are the top priority.

“If it wasn’t for the Liberals letting big corporations off the hook for pension theft, Sears Canada workers would not have to carry the weight of legal fees to fight for what is rightfully theirs,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “Liberals and Conservatives turned their back on workers to make life easier for a big company and their executives.”

The NDP's plan will stop companies from paying out bosses when people’s pensions are underfunded, and will create a mandatory, industry-financed pension insurance program.

NDP Critic for Pensions, Scott Duvall (Hamilton Mountain), introduced a bill in the House of Commons that aimed to change bankruptcy and insolvency law to stop pension theft by big corporations.

“Trudeau’s Liberals and Scheer’s Conservatives have done nothing to help workers whose pensions have been taken away from them because of corporate greed,” said Duvall. “Instead of strengthening support for Canadian workers and retirees, they have sided with rich corporations to undermine retirement benefits. This is wrong. New Democrats believe that every Canadian should be able to count on a dignified, secure retirement – and we’ll fight hard to protect pensions that workers have earned.”