Globe and Mail – Battle Brewing as Sears Canada confirms no severance pay

A battle is brewing over insolvent Sears Canada Inc.’s underfunded pension, retiree benefits and severance for 2,900 terminated employees.

Sears, which this week got court protection from its creditors, is letting go 17 per cent of its 17,000 employees as it closes 59 of its 255 stores. The ailing retailer confirmed on Friday it doesn’t intend to pay severance to those laid-off staff as it scrambles to revive its flagging fortunes amid a fast-changing retail landscape.

Sears’s refusal to pay severance to laid-off employees “is terrible,” Lior Samfiru, a Toronto Employment Lawyer and partner of law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, told the Globe and Mail. He has represented former Sears employees prior to the filing.

“Employees are left with no legal remedies.”

Learn more about the Sears Canada bankruptcy and what the Sears Act entails.

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Employment lawyer regularly in the Globe and Mail