A bankruptcy judge has approved Fairway Market’s decision to award more than $1 million worth of bonuses to top employees who are steering the company through bankruptcy, although he added the grocer’s workers also probably deserve some extra cash, Crain's New York Business reported. “The work of the folks on the firing line, at cash registers and loading docks, clearly has been outstanding,” Bankruptcy Judge James Garrity said at a hearing yesterday. “All employees deserve merit and consideration.” But most of Fairway’s nearly 3,000 employees aren’t getting awarded bonuses, at least not under the supervision of a bankruptcy court. About two dozen Fairway senior employees and executives were awarded nearly $1 million shortly before the supermarket filed for bankruptcy protection in January, and the company asked that these people be awarded an additional $1.1 million for seeing the company through chapter 11. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, which represents most Fairway employees, called the bankruptcy bonuses unjustified. So did the federal government. At today’s hearing, Justice Department official Greg Zipes highlighted the unfairness of management getting awarded bonuses.
