Future of Sears Canada looks grim, posts $144-million loss
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They started out as a catalog operation. They've been beaten out of the marketplace by modern, net-based catalog operations.
Sears Canada will pay a final $2.8 million in retention bonuses to 36 head office staff, even though the retailer's restructuring efforts failed and the company is closing its doors.
Promised bonuses were only supposed to be paid in full if the company found a way to survive. However, Sears got court approval on Wednesday to continue paying retention bonuses to key staff such as executives and managers who will now steer the retailer through the wind-down and liquidation process.
In total, Sears will end up paying up to $6.5-million in bonus payments to head office staff from the time it filed for insolvency in June until it closes for good.
Meanwhile, more than 16,000 employees have recently lost or will soon lose their jobs without receiving any severance, and many of them will likely collect reduced pensions.
"Can I use the F-word?" said Mina Iannino who lost her Sears merchandiser job in Toronto in March and then had her severance cut off in June.
"I'm really upset. I'm disgusted with this company," she said about the ongoing bonus payments.
When Sears became insolvent in June, it pledged to pay up to $7.6 million in bonus payments to entice 43 key senior managers and executives to stay and help keep the retailer afloat. Sears has already doled out $3.7 million of that money, and some of the recipients have since quit their jobs.
In the new, amended plan, the company will pay up to $2.8 million more in bonuses to 20 of the original 43 key staff along with 16 other staff members.
Jennifer Holder, who was laid off from her Sears sales job in Toronto, says the revised bonus plan makes no sense.
"It baffles the mind," said Holder, who worked for Sears for 28 years. "I can't believe they're worried about securing bonuses for execs when the employees are looking at going through the Christmas season with no real job."
But according to court documents, the 36 staff members receiving the extra cash are considered "essential" to Sears' operations as it starts liquidating its remaining 130 stores on Thursday.
Meanwhile, former Sears workers can apply for money from a hardship fund created in August.
Company chairman Brandon Stranzl donated the fund's entire amount of $500,000. It came from the retention bonus he received before he stepped down from his job this week.
Sears employees have complained that the hardship fund contains too little cash and that whatever money a laid-off employee gets is clawed back due to Canada's employment insurance rules.
"Why should they get a bonus if we're not getting anything at all?" said Holder.
Sears managers, execs will still pocket big cash bonuses even though retailer is closing - Business - CBC News
Promised bonuses were only supposed to be paid in full if the company found a way to survive. However, Sears got court approval on Wednesday to continue paying retention bonuses to key staff such as executives and managers who will now steer the retailer through the wind-down and liquidation process.
In total, Sears will end up paying up to $6.5-million in bonus payments to head office staff from the time it filed for insolvency in June until it closes for good.
Meanwhile, more than 16,000 employees have recently lost or will soon lose their jobs without receiving any severance, and many of them will likely collect reduced pensions.
"Can I use the F-word?" said Mina Iannino who lost her Sears merchandiser job in Toronto in March and then had her severance cut off in June.
"I'm really upset. I'm disgusted with this company," she said about the ongoing bonus payments.
When Sears became insolvent in June, it pledged to pay up to $7.6 million in bonus payments to entice 43 key senior managers and executives to stay and help keep the retailer afloat. Sears has already doled out $3.7 million of that money, and some of the recipients have since quit their jobs.
In the new, amended plan, the company will pay up to $2.8 million more in bonuses to 20 of the original 43 key staff along with 16 other staff members.
Jennifer Holder, who was laid off from her Sears sales job in Toronto, says the revised bonus plan makes no sense.
"It baffles the mind," said Holder, who worked for Sears for 28 years. "I can't believe they're worried about securing bonuses for execs when the employees are looking at going through the Christmas season with no real job."
But according to court documents, the 36 staff members receiving the extra cash are considered "essential" to Sears' operations as it starts liquidating its remaining 130 stores on Thursday.
Meanwhile, former Sears workers can apply for money from a hardship fund created in August.
Company chairman Brandon Stranzl donated the fund's entire amount of $500,000. It came from the retention bonus he received before he stepped down from his job this week.
Sears employees have complained that the hardship fund contains too little cash and that whatever money a laid-off employee gets is clawed back due to Canada's employment insurance rules.
"Why should they get a bonus if we're not getting anything at all?" said Holder.
Sears managers, execs will still pocket big cash bonuses even though retailer is closing - Business - CBC News
There are several lessons to be learned from the demise of Sears Canada. Linda McQuaig writes that one of the biggest is that the legal principle of "limited liability" leaves loyal employees in the lurch:
Whatever competitive pressures Sears Canada faced along with other big retailers, its controlling shareholders almost certainly made the company’s demise more likely with their decision to pay out more than $2.7 billion in dividends since 2005 to themselves and other shareholders.
Those dividends went heavily to its largest shareholder, Sears Holding, controlled by [Eddie] Lampert, according to Bloomberg and the Globe and Mail.
Forbes currently estimates Lampert’s wealth at $1.65 billion U.S., and describes the source of his fortune as “Sears, self made.”
Sears Canada might well have survived if some of the $2.7 billion paid out in dividends had been redirected into updating and redesigning its more than 130 stores to attract a new generation of shoppers.
If the company felt unable to compete, it could have, at least, set aside enough money to pay its employees severance and fully fund the company pension plan.
Instead, it left some 12,000 workers without severance and a shortfall of $270 million in its pension fund, leaving 18,000 retirees uncertain about collecting future benefits.
There was a time when employers were held legally responsible for what bankruptcy did to their employees:Those dividends went heavily to its largest shareholder, Sears Holding, controlled by [Eddie] Lampert, according to Bloomberg and the Globe and Mail.
Forbes currently estimates Lampert’s wealth at $1.65 billion U.S., and describes the source of his fortune as “Sears, self made.”
Sears Canada might well have survived if some of the $2.7 billion paid out in dividends had been redirected into updating and redesigning its more than 130 stores to attract a new generation of shoppers.
If the company felt unable to compete, it could have, at least, set aside enough money to pay its employees severance and fully fund the company pension plan.
Instead, it left some 12,000 workers without severance and a shortfall of $270 million in its pension fund, leaving 18,000 retirees uncertain about collecting future benefits.
Wealthy capitalists used to be personally responsible for unpaid wages when their businesses went under. But capitalists fought hard in the late 19th and early 20th century to win the right to limit their liability.
At first they won only a partial limit, but over the years U.S. and Canadian courts have extended that limit.
The change was fiercely resisted on the grounds that it would leave vulnerable employees in dire situations — like the situations faced today by thousands of Sears ex-workers.
But for decades, government and the legal system has been tilted in favour of capital. Employees supposedly got what trickled down to them. And, over the years, what trickled down slowed down.At first they won only a partial limit, but over the years U.S. and Canadian courts have extended that limit.
The change was fiercely resisted on the grounds that it would leave vulnerable employees in dire situations — like the situations faced today by thousands of Sears ex-workers.
It's time to re-balance the interests of labour.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/com...da-should-be-catalyst-for-change-mcquaig.html
Perhaps the closing has to do with no customers with any money. People shop at Walmart rather than Sears or the Bay for financial reasons rather than they have a love for defective goods.
The cops would love to see that post. Shows what the mentality of the collective is really like.
Why start now when so many have escaped already. I doubt the CEO's tanked their own company, they got paid big bucks to do it. How about catching them instead, just for a change.
I will say that if this was happening when Harper was in power and he responded this way, the howling across the country would be non stop and rightly so........
The Liberal government says it has "no plan" to change the law to protect Canadian pensioners when companies like Sears file for bankruptcy, but they are open to discussing the issue.
Uncertainty over the future of Sears pensions in the wake of the retail giant's bankruptcy have led those advocating for improved protections for pensioners to pressure the government to change the law.
"We need legislative change," said Wanda Morris, vice-president of The Canadian Association for Retired Persons, CARP, a national non-profit advocacy group that campaigns for healthcare and financial security for retirees.
"So, right now there is no plan to do that. Obviously, we're open to discussions," said Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains. "It's not a matter of not wanting to. Right now, we're engaging and we're willing to work with anyone that wants to put forward proposals."
The New Democrats said they will table a private members bill this fall proposing amendments to both the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
The NDP said the changes will put pensioners before creditors when a company files for bankruptcy
"When we're talking about pensioners, we're talking about people with decades worth of experience and of wages deferred. They don't have other pensions to pull on. They are extremely vulnerable and we need to protect them," added Morris, whose group was on Parliament Hill Wednesday to lobby MPs.
Liberals say there is 'no plan' to change law to protect pensioners in wake of Sears' bankruptcy - Politics - CBC News
The Liberal government says it has "no plan" to change the law to protect Canadian pensioners when companies like Sears file for bankruptcy, but they are open to discussing the issue.
Uncertainty over the future of Sears pensions in the wake of the retail giant's bankruptcy have led those advocating for improved protections for pensioners to pressure the government to change the law.
"We need legislative change," said Wanda Morris, vice-president of The Canadian Association for Retired Persons, CARP, a national non-profit advocacy group that campaigns for healthcare and financial security for retirees.
"So, right now there is no plan to do that. Obviously, we're open to discussions," said Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains. "It's not a matter of not wanting to. Right now, we're engaging and we're willing to work with anyone that wants to put forward proposals."
The New Democrats said they will table a private members bill this fall proposing amendments to both the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
The NDP said the changes will put pensioners before creditors when a company files for bankruptcy
"When we're talking about pensioners, we're talking about people with decades worth of experience and of wages deferred. They don't have other pensions to pull on. They are extremely vulnerable and we need to protect them," added Morris, whose group was on Parliament Hill Wednesday to lobby MPs.
Liberals say there is 'no plan' to change law to protect pensioners in wake of Sears' bankruptcy - Politics - CBC News
While politicians play politics with Sears pensioners, the Supreme Court appears to be on their side
On Monday in Ottawa, a private member’s bill is expected to be tabled by NDP Hamilton Mountain MP Scott Duvall that will attempt to give corporate employees rock-solid protection for their pension benefits in the event their employer goes bankrupt. The bill, developed in the context of Sears Canada’s collapse with a $270-million pension fund shortfall, is good policy that is doomed to fail.
The bill will go nowhere, but that doesn’t mean Sears pensioners will not get what they are entitled to: full pension coverage. The Supreme Court appears to be on their side.
Duvall’s effort will fail because the dominant Liberal/Conservative power duopoly will continue to waffle and fuddle through a policy change that should be a popular slam-dunk. As Duvall put it, Ottawa should fix bankruptcy laws that favour “big fat corporations and CEOs.”
Classic NDP rhetoric, but on this Duvall, union leaders and retiree advocates are right in principle. As Sears Canada clearly demonstrates, the pension benefits owed to employees of corporations represent savings and wages earned by employees. The value of those benefits should rank above the claims of all other creditors, which means pension plans are entitled to “super priority” over the claims of all other creditors and should get first crack at the assets of a bankrupt company.
The idea of giving pensioners super priority has been killed by a succession of Liberal and Conservative government over decades, all of them claiming that doing so would upset the delicate balance that protects banks and other creditors — including suppliers and their workers — who provide companies with vital credit, products and services that keep corporate Canada alive.
If we give pensioners savings and wages priority, the politicians say, companies will have less credit available to survive and grow. That’s the theory, described by one lawyer as “the Doomsday argument” that gets recycled every time a new corporate pension crisis develops.
While the politicians dicker and play politics, the good news for Sears pensioners is that their pension payouts are not dependent on Duvall’s bill, which in any case would come too late to change the laws that apply to Sears Canada. Instead, they can look to a Supreme Court decision in 2013 that clearly sides with pensioners in the event of bankruptcy. Sears employees are entitled to — and should receive — the full value of their pension benefits.
more
While politicians play politics with Sears pensioners, the Supreme Court appears to be on their side | Financial Post
On Monday in Ottawa, a private member’s bill is expected to be tabled by NDP Hamilton Mountain MP Scott Duvall that will attempt to give corporate employees rock-solid protection for their pension benefits in the event their employer goes bankrupt. The bill, developed in the context of Sears Canada’s collapse with a $270-million pension fund shortfall, is good policy that is doomed to fail.
The bill will go nowhere, but that doesn’t mean Sears pensioners will not get what they are entitled to: full pension coverage. The Supreme Court appears to be on their side.
Duvall’s effort will fail because the dominant Liberal/Conservative power duopoly will continue to waffle and fuddle through a policy change that should be a popular slam-dunk. As Duvall put it, Ottawa should fix bankruptcy laws that favour “big fat corporations and CEOs.”
Classic NDP rhetoric, but on this Duvall, union leaders and retiree advocates are right in principle. As Sears Canada clearly demonstrates, the pension benefits owed to employees of corporations represent savings and wages earned by employees. The value of those benefits should rank above the claims of all other creditors, which means pension plans are entitled to “super priority” over the claims of all other creditors and should get first crack at the assets of a bankrupt company.
The idea of giving pensioners super priority has been killed by a succession of Liberal and Conservative government over decades, all of them claiming that doing so would upset the delicate balance that protects banks and other creditors — including suppliers and their workers — who provide companies with vital credit, products and services that keep corporate Canada alive.
If we give pensioners savings and wages priority, the politicians say, companies will have less credit available to survive and grow. That’s the theory, described by one lawyer as “the Doomsday argument” that gets recycled every time a new corporate pension crisis develops.
While the politicians dicker and play politics, the good news for Sears pensioners is that their pension payouts are not dependent on Duvall’s bill, which in any case would come too late to change the laws that apply to Sears Canada. Instead, they can look to a Supreme Court decision in 2013 that clearly sides with pensioners in the event of bankruptcy. Sears employees are entitled to — and should receive — the full value of their pension benefits.
more
While politicians play politics with Sears pensioners, the Supreme Court appears to be on their side | Financial Post
Even the not worker friendly Americans have a Pension Guarantee........
A week after announcing 63 store closures that included seven in Pennsylvania, Sears Holding Corp. this week said it's planning to sell up to 140 stores and close additional locations.
The latest round of closures is part of a deal to fund pensions. Sears Holding will pay $407 million to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, using money raised from selling up to 140 stores. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp covers about 100,000 Sears employees.
The locations of the stores to be sold have not been identified. Additional closures are also possible, Sears Holding said.
Last week, Sears said it would close 45 Kmart stores and 18 Sears locations, including seven in Pennsylvania. Clearance sales have already started at those locations, and the stores will close in January.
Sears Holding said it expects a net loss up to $595 million for the third quarter.
Sears to sell 140 stores, close additional locations | PennLive.com
A week after announcing 63 store closures that included seven in Pennsylvania, Sears Holding Corp. this week said it's planning to sell up to 140 stores and close additional locations.
The latest round of closures is part of a deal to fund pensions. Sears Holding will pay $407 million to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, using money raised from selling up to 140 stores. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp covers about 100,000 Sears employees.
The locations of the stores to be sold have not been identified. Additional closures are also possible, Sears Holding said.
Last week, Sears said it would close 45 Kmart stores and 18 Sears locations, including seven in Pennsylvania. Clearance sales have already started at those locations, and the stores will close in January.
Sears Holding said it expects a net loss up to $595 million for the third quarter.
Sears to sell 140 stores, close additional locations | PennLive.com
Are you suggesting that the Canadian Sears workers are moochers for wanting their Pensions...?
Allegations Sears Canada marked up prices before liquidation under investigation
Canadian Press
More from Canadian Press
Published:
November 23, 2017
Updated:
November 23, 2017 4:54 PM EST
A store closing sign is shown on a Sears store at the Oakville Place mall in Oakville, Ont., west of Toronto, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Buchan
By David Paddon, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — The Competition Bureau is investigating allegations that prices on some merchandise were marked up ahead of the liquidation sales at Sears Canada that began last month, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the retailer says.
The monitor’s seventh report to Ontario Superior Court says the federal competition watchdog sent letters on Nov. 8 to the liquidators inquiring about the allegations that certain merchandise was marked up.
A Competition Bureau spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency can’t comment or confirm any ongoing investigation.
But under federal law, she wrote in an email, consumers should not be misled by references to inflated regular prices and “doesn’t make any distinctions between retailers and liquidators or the nature of the promotional event.”
For example, Amazon.com.ca Inc. agreed in January to pay a $1 million penalty and $100,000 towards costs after the bureau determined the online retailer hadn’t verified the accuracy of “list price” information provided by its suppliers.
The bureau also works to achieve “voluntary” compliance with the act “through various types of communication to businesses or individuals in specific matters before, during and/or following an investigation.”
A spokesman for Sears Canada told The Canadian Press that the company didn’t have a comment about a CBC News report on Thursday that said it had spoken with a Sears Canada employee who said he was ordered to mark up prices shortly after liquidation sales began on Oct. 19.
A call and emails to one of the Sears Canada liquidators were not answered Thursday.
Sears Canada has been under court protection since June and began the process of liquidating its remaining stores in October after failing to find a buyer.
After the sales began, several customers posted pictures to social media suggesting prices had been raised.
The joint-venture group running the liquidation includes Hilco Global, Gordon Brothers, Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group.
Allegations Sears Canada marked up prices before liquidation under investigation | Toronto Sun
Canadian Press
More from Canadian Press
Published:
November 23, 2017
Updated:
November 23, 2017 4:54 PM EST
A store closing sign is shown on a Sears store at the Oakville Place mall in Oakville, Ont., west of Toronto, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Buchan
By David Paddon, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — The Competition Bureau is investigating allegations that prices on some merchandise were marked up ahead of the liquidation sales at Sears Canada that began last month, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the retailer says.
The monitor’s seventh report to Ontario Superior Court says the federal competition watchdog sent letters on Nov. 8 to the liquidators inquiring about the allegations that certain merchandise was marked up.
A Competition Bureau spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency can’t comment or confirm any ongoing investigation.
But under federal law, she wrote in an email, consumers should not be misled by references to inflated regular prices and “doesn’t make any distinctions between retailers and liquidators or the nature of the promotional event.”
For example, Amazon.com.ca Inc. agreed in January to pay a $1 million penalty and $100,000 towards costs after the bureau determined the online retailer hadn’t verified the accuracy of “list price” information provided by its suppliers.
The bureau also works to achieve “voluntary” compliance with the act “through various types of communication to businesses or individuals in specific matters before, during and/or following an investigation.”
A spokesman for Sears Canada told The Canadian Press that the company didn’t have a comment about a CBC News report on Thursday that said it had spoken with a Sears Canada employee who said he was ordered to mark up prices shortly after liquidation sales began on Oct. 19.
A call and emails to one of the Sears Canada liquidators were not answered Thursday.
Sears Canada has been under court protection since June and began the process of liquidating its remaining stores in October after failing to find a buyer.
After the sales began, several customers posted pictures to social media suggesting prices had been raised.
The joint-venture group running the liquidation includes Hilco Global, Gordon Brothers, Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group.
Allegations Sears Canada marked up prices before liquidation under investigation | Toronto Sun
Morneau sides with shareholders, not Canadian workers
Perhaps it is not strange that executives running some of Canada’s biggest companies would choose to shortchange their employees’ pension plans, preferring instead to pay dividends to themselves and other shareholders.
But, what seems odd is that our government allows it.
Of course, in running any business there are choices to be made. But surely whether or not employees should be paid what they are owed cannot be not one of them. That is an obligation.
Or it should be.
But there was disturbing news in a report last week by David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. According to Macdonald’s research, many Canadian companies are paying massive dividends to shareholders even while they are underfunding their employees’ pension plan.
The Sears Canada bankruptcy shows the extreme risk in allowing that.
The Sears bankruptcy hasn’t just left 12,000 Canadians jobless. It has left them with a $267 million hole in their pension fund. Suddenly, retirement savings they were depending on are gone. But, gone where?
Since 2010, “Sears Canada paid back $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks,” writes Macdonald. “Sears Canada paid back five-and-a-half times more to its shareholders than it would have cost to entirely erase the deficit” in their employee’s pension plan.
To prevent other Canadians from the fate of Sears workers, underfunded pensions need to be addressed before the next group of workers ends up in bankruptcy court. Canadians need legal protections that ensure their defined benefit pensions are properly funded while their company is profitable and healthy.
Now, the dividend class isn’t big on that solution. When current Finance Minister Bill Morneau was head of C.D. Howe Institute, he complained about “rigid defined benefit plans” and strongly advocated their replacement. Others, without explanation, high-handedly dismiss defined benefit plans as “unsustainable.” Nonsense.
Many major companies run fully-funded defined benefit plans. These include well-known companies like Canadian Pacific Railways, CN Rail, Loblaw and Telus.
And among many companies running a pension deficit, shortchanging pension funds is a choice — like Sears, these companies are paying big dividends to shareholders out of employees’ pension money.
The Bank of Nova Scotia paid $3.6 billion in dividends despite a $1.4 billion pension deficit, according to the CCPA report. Royal Bank paid dividends of $5 billion despite a $1.4 billion pension deficit. TD Bank paid $3.8 billion in dividends whiles owing $1 billion to workers. There are many others.
These are federally-regulated companies, and the regulator responsible for protecting the health of these pension funds reports to Bill Morneau.
So, what is Bill Morneau doing to make these companies pay employee obligations before shareholder dividends? Nothing.
Morneau should be requiring companies to tell Canadians’ pension regulator about their dividend plans. He should be setting processes and rules that get healthy companies to fully fund pensions — before there’s another Sears-type pension fiasco.
Instead, Morneau is sponsoring Bill C-27. True, it does help eliminate pension liabilities — but not by funding them. Morneau’s bill would help employers permanently shift potential liabilities onto workers by replacing defined benefit plans with “target” plans.
On pensions, tax havens and private infrastructure finance, Bill Moreau has shown he’s a rich guy’s rich guy. That’s what he was as leader of a C.D. Howe Institute, which is little more than a CEO lobby group. That’s what he is as Finance Minister. He can’t be gone soon enough.
PARKIN: Morneau sides with shareholders, not Canadian workers | Toronto Sun
Perhaps it is not strange that executives running some of Canada’s biggest companies would choose to shortchange their employees’ pension plans, preferring instead to pay dividends to themselves and other shareholders.
But, what seems odd is that our government allows it.
Of course, in running any business there are choices to be made. But surely whether or not employees should be paid what they are owed cannot be not one of them. That is an obligation.
Or it should be.
But there was disturbing news in a report last week by David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. According to Macdonald’s research, many Canadian companies are paying massive dividends to shareholders even while they are underfunding their employees’ pension plan.
The Sears Canada bankruptcy shows the extreme risk in allowing that.
The Sears bankruptcy hasn’t just left 12,000 Canadians jobless. It has left them with a $267 million hole in their pension fund. Suddenly, retirement savings they were depending on are gone. But, gone where?
Since 2010, “Sears Canada paid back $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks,” writes Macdonald. “Sears Canada paid back five-and-a-half times more to its shareholders than it would have cost to entirely erase the deficit” in their employee’s pension plan.
To prevent other Canadians from the fate of Sears workers, underfunded pensions need to be addressed before the next group of workers ends up in bankruptcy court. Canadians need legal protections that ensure their defined benefit pensions are properly funded while their company is profitable and healthy.
Now, the dividend class isn’t big on that solution. When current Finance Minister Bill Morneau was head of C.D. Howe Institute, he complained about “rigid defined benefit plans” and strongly advocated their replacement. Others, without explanation, high-handedly dismiss defined benefit plans as “unsustainable.” Nonsense.
Many major companies run fully-funded defined benefit plans. These include well-known companies like Canadian Pacific Railways, CN Rail, Loblaw and Telus.
And among many companies running a pension deficit, shortchanging pension funds is a choice — like Sears, these companies are paying big dividends to shareholders out of employees’ pension money.
The Bank of Nova Scotia paid $3.6 billion in dividends despite a $1.4 billion pension deficit, according to the CCPA report. Royal Bank paid dividends of $5 billion despite a $1.4 billion pension deficit. TD Bank paid $3.8 billion in dividends whiles owing $1 billion to workers. There are many others.
These are federally-regulated companies, and the regulator responsible for protecting the health of these pension funds reports to Bill Morneau.
So, what is Bill Morneau doing to make these companies pay employee obligations before shareholder dividends? Nothing.
Morneau should be requiring companies to tell Canadians’ pension regulator about their dividend plans. He should be setting processes and rules that get healthy companies to fully fund pensions — before there’s another Sears-type pension fiasco.
Instead, Morneau is sponsoring Bill C-27. True, it does help eliminate pension liabilities — but not by funding them. Morneau’s bill would help employers permanently shift potential liabilities onto workers by replacing defined benefit plans with “target” plans.
On pensions, tax havens and private infrastructure finance, Bill Moreau has shown he’s a rich guy’s rich guy. That’s what he was as leader of a C.D. Howe Institute, which is little more than a CEO lobby group. That’s what he is as Finance Minister. He can’t be gone soon enough.
PARKIN: Morneau sides with shareholders, not Canadian workers | Toronto Sun
If anyone has a chance to get to a Trudeau meeting ask him why Canadians can't have a Pension Protections......
Carillion collapse raises job fears
The company has 43,000 staff worldwide - 20,000 in the UK. It is not clear yet how those staff will be affected.
Carillion also employs thousands of smaller firms, who will be keen to know how they are affected by its collapse.
Some of Carillion's contracts will be taken on by other firms and some could be renationalised, according to BBC business editor Simon Jack.
Thousands of current and former staff have money in Carillion pension funds, which have deficit of almost £600m.
Those funds will now be managed by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
The PPF said it was aware news of the liquidation would "raise serious concerns for all people involved".
"We want to reassure members of Carillion's defined benefit pension schemes that their benefits are protected by the PPF."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-42687032
Carillion collapse raises job fears
The company has 43,000 staff worldwide - 20,000 in the UK. It is not clear yet how those staff will be affected.
Carillion also employs thousands of smaller firms, who will be keen to know how they are affected by its collapse.
Some of Carillion's contracts will be taken on by other firms and some could be renationalised, according to BBC business editor Simon Jack.
Thousands of current and former staff have money in Carillion pension funds, which have deficit of almost £600m.
Those funds will now be managed by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
The PPF said it was aware news of the liquidation would "raise serious concerns for all people involved".
"We want to reassure members of Carillion's defined benefit pension schemes that their benefits are protected by the PPF."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-42687032