A group of nearly 40 disabled or sick former Nortel workers insist that they have been shortchanged as various creditors, bondholders, pensioners and their lawyers scrabble over the carcass of Nortel, the Toronto Star reported. They argue that the decision last year to divvy up the $7.3 billion (U.S.) that Nortel left behind — as well as a prior settlement relating to the company’s Health and Welfare Trust — is grossly unfair to former employees who were on long-term disability leave when the business went bankrupt in 2009. The group is trying to pressure the Canada’s federal innovation minister to change Canada’s bankruptcy laws to give disabled people preferred status when a defunct company’s assets are divided among its creditors.
