The Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear an appeal from a former Nortel Networks Corp. employee who claimed her charter rights were violated over the issue of disability payments.
The employee, Jennifer Holley, had argued the 2015 agreement setting out disability benefits in the wake of Nortel’s bankruptcy was unfair and unreasonable.
According to a news release from Holley, she “is very disappointed that the Supreme Court is not giving her the opportunity to prove that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the disability income and medical and dental expense benefits of workers in Canada, should they become disabled.”
Read: Ex-Nortel workers seeking regulatory change to boost priority of disability benefits
The news release noted the settlement provided for $73 million for disability income, medical and dental expenses and life insurance for the group. Of that, $34 million was to come from the health and welfare trust in 2011, with another $39 million coming from the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act estate. A successful appeal would have increased the portion of the settlement for the group’s disability income and medical and dental expenses by 66 per cent, according to the news release.
“The next step for Jennifer Holley is to seek funding and to launch a direct constitutional challenge against the government of Canada on the same constitutional question of this application for leave to appeal in respect to the Nortel final plan of arrangement,” noted Diane Urquhart, an independent financial analyst and advisor to the group of former employees, in an email to Benefits Canada.
Read: Nortel employees seek legal clarity around health and welfare trust