Retirees better protected in the event of business bankruptcy

Bill C-228 was introduced by Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

An important bill for the rights of workers and pensioners, awaited for years, received the final approval of the Senate on Tuesday evening. It will better protect retirement pensions in the event of business failure.

In recent years, several cases of companies that have gone bankrupt have been publicized, while they left their ex-workers with retirement pensions cut by 25%, sometimes more: Sears and the Cliffs mining company, for example. These ex-workers were far from being the first creditors to use themselves.

This Bill C-228, introduced by Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu and which obtained the consent of all parties, corrects this “injustice”, as senators pointed out on Tuesday evening.

It raises the rank of ex-workers as creditors, granting them “super priority” status. They will thus pass in front of municipalities and school service centres, for example, which would like to recover their unpaid taxes.

The bill is the result of a long battle, waged for years by the Steelworkers and Unifor unions, which sometimes had to go to court to obtain justice for their members.