Former Canwest Workers Protest Outside Court Hearing Issues Of Severance

Former employees of Canwest Global Communications demonstrated Tuesday outside a downtown Toronto courthouse where lawyers are discussing what will become of their severance pay, which was locked up when the media company filed for protection from its creditors.

More than 50 former Canwest staff and union members were outside the court, carrying signs calling for their severance payments to be resumed. It’s the first time that the court has talked in detail about the money owed to Canwest staff who were laid off from the media conglomerate, which filed for creditor protection in some of its divisions earlier this month.

Their severance payments were essentially halted when Canwest filed for creditor protection, and former workers will have to line up with all others who are owed money by Canwest to make a claim.

At issue Tuesday was the legal representation of various employees, some who belonged to a union, some who didn’t, and how they will have their interests reflected during the creditor protection proceedings.

Canwest lawyer Lyndon Barnes told the court that he believed employees were adequately represented at this point. He said that further complicating the proceedings by dividing employees up by their union representations or other status could risk delays to the restructuring.

“This process has certain milestones,” Barnes said. “This is an aggressive schedule to try and adhere to the restructuring” deadlines.

Canwest is aiming to complete its restructuring plan by the end of January.

The comments came in response to a lawyer who is proposing to represent former Canwest staff who were members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union. He asked the judge to grant funding to help the union pay for lawyers.

He says the CEP can’t afford to foot the legal bills for “effective” representation because it has lost many of its paying members in the economic downturn.