“The money itself is coming from executive bonuses that are earned under the key employee retention program, but are being forgone in favour of putting the money into this hardship fund,” she said.
$500k of a $9.2M executive bonus fund.
Socialism is the opiate of the masses, but it’s hard to argue with those who want to put Sears up against the wall.
The bonuses were court-approved. And they make sense as they pay key people to stay on while the company is wound down. One can only imagine the cost if some or all of those employees fled to new careers leaving a huge mess behind.
$500000 – again court approved – does sound paltry by comparison, but it’s better than nothing and one wonders how many employees we are talking about and how many employees are involved in receiving bonuses.
I am always amazed at how the guys who ran the company into the ground get bonuses. In a sane world they would be the first ones fired likely years ago when Sears lost its way with outdated fashions and retail methods including specialty stores filled with stuff no one wanted to buy. Why Sears is not giving Amazon a run for its money is completely beyond me. Same basic concept without the expensive catalog.
Target did the same thing, I was there until the end, and yes I received a “bonus” to keep key employees around to facilitate the wind down.
Target”s plan was called KERP or Key employee retention plan and involved rewarding the store manager, the HR manager the ETL (executive team leader for logistics and my self the property manager.
We four stayed until the end.
Target laid-off 18,000 and yet not one peep from the SJW’s.
Sears must be special!
Joe, Sears-Roebuck was taken over by a New York hedge fund over a decade ago. The business strategy for the hedge fund was to milk the company of every last dollar it had and pocket ALL profit as dividends. Nothing was to be reinvested in the business. That’s why for over half a decade, Sears was declaring record dividends even while gross sales were in steep decline. And having executed the strategy, Sears is now in the inevitable final phase of liquidation. Note that this hardship fund is NOT coming from the company owners, the hedge fund, but from their hired executive management. The latter seem to have much more sympathy with their workers than the cut-throat owners.
Employment contracts are legal contracts that every employee at any company in Canada signs. Did the Sears employment contracts state that upon job termination (for any reason) that EXTRA money beyond agreed or government regulated minimum severance was owed?
Yes, for the executives that signed the dotted line when hired it did.
Ah yesteryear………
“Sears, the first major retailer to institute an affirmative action program, in 1968,….” – The Washington Post 1986
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/02/08/a-big-win-for-sears/c6feb1aa-ba2e-4933-b99f-673fe9f2077d/?utm_term=.601bddb96e0c
“SEARS TO CHANGE ITS HIRING POLICY” – NYT 1981
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/05/us/sears-to-change-its-hiring-policy-us-ending-four-racial-bias-suits.html
Sniff……
Retention bonuses are common. If you had to go into the open market and hire people to shut down a company, likely on a contract basis, the cost would be astronomical. If I was an employee, I would be gone at the first opportunity without an incentive to stay. An influx of outsiders coming in to manage could be disastrous.
And what exactly are the “retention” bonuses for tech employees who are made to stay and train their low-paid dot-Indian replacements ? Why aren’t the Socialists insisting on a “protection” fund of our employees replaced by foreigners? Why arent they paid from the executive bonus funds? Ohhhhh yeahhhh that’s riiiight … that would be contrary to the “immigration” narrative … the “globalism” narrative … the “corporatist” narrative. The socialists cheer the loss of American (and Canadian) jobs.
“Socialism is the opiate of the masses, but it’s hard to argue with those who want to put Sears up against the wall.”
Yeah, I can agree a bit with this.
Just got back from a tour of St. Petersburg, Russia, and after visiting my umpteenth gold-plated palace and church, I said “I’m about as right-wing as they come, but if I were living here in 1917, I woulda probably been a revolutionary too”.
For about 5 minutes, of course, until the Bolshies took over and made a bad situation worse (which is what their only skill is).
Socialism is the opiate of the masses, but it’s hard to argue with those who want to put Sears up against the wall.
Part of the reason socialism is so distasteful is the naked envy and greed.
That doesn’t look any better on conservatives.
“A group of aggrieved creditors wants to sue the executive officers and directors of Sears Canada for negligence and intends to ask an Ontario judge Friday to schedule a hearing for their motion on whether they can proceed with their claim.
A number of suppliers and construction companies collectively owed millions by the struggling retailer want to make a legal motion to lift the court-ordered stay that protects Sears Canada from paying its creditors during the bankruptcy protection process, in order to allow the companies to pursue a claim of “negligent misrepresentation and oppression” against Sears brass.”
http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/creditor-group-wants-to-sue-sears-executives-board/wcm/97ef2d16-4a90-42b2-b79b-74f81fc54904
I remember when people got bonuses for saving a company or making it more profitable, not the other way around.