OTTAWA -- About three dozen disabled Nortel employees are urging the feds to change the law to ensure disability benefits move to the front of the queue in any bankruptcy settlement.
Representatives of a dissident group fighting a tentative agreement between Nortel and its former and current employees say the plan they have been offered would see their near $12 million in annual drug and health-care benefits extended until the end of the year, after that, they say, there's nothing for them.
Accepting the plan would also mean giving up the right to sue Nortel for alleged abuses of its disability fund.
If the employees don't agree to the deal, the group says, they will be cut off at the beginning of April. "Nortelšs April Fool's Day settlement gave us a Hobson's choice, that is a choice with two unacceptable options," said Peter Burns, a disabled former Nortel engineer.
The group is hoping the feds will place disabled pensioners above other creditors in any future bankruptcy settlements.
peter.zimonjic@sunmedia.ca
