A group of retired Sears Holdings Corp. workers have asked for the creation of a committee to protect their interests as a retiree died shortly after his life insurance was canceled, Bloomberg News reported. Lawyers for the retired workers say that the bankrupt retailer has wrongly terminated the life insurance policies for tens of thousands of former employees. They believe the spouses of some Sears retirees who recently died have been deprived of the life insurance payment earned from years of work at the iconic department store, according to a court filing. In one instance, the life insurance policy of a Sears retiree who died May 6 won’t be paid because his death was 21 days after the Sears estate terminated his benefits, according to the Tuesday court filing. Sears filed for bankruptcy last year and sold its assets in January. The shell of the business that is now winding down with a plan to pay creditors said in an April court filing that it had stopped making premium payments and had terminated the retiree plan. The U.S. Department of Labor objected earlier this month to the estate plan to end the life insurance without court approval, but the estate responded that it has the right to “unilaterally amend or terminate the plan at any time.”
