A new motion put forward by the NDP could help Nortel employees struggling to get compensation for their pension plan by giving them priority over other creditors.
If the motion passes, a national pension insurance program would be created, guaranteeing pensioners up to $2,500 per month in the event their pension plan goes under.
"The Nortel Act tabled today takes the decisive steps that are needed to put the shortfalls in pension plans on an equal footing to other preferred creditors," said NDP Leader Jack Layton on Tuesday.
The motion would allow more than 20,000 former Nortel employees who are owed pension, severance or disability pay to be moved up in Nortel's priority list of creditors.
Pensioners say the bill will make it easier to recover money that's owed to them, which is what they've been fighting for all along.
"The Bankruptcy Act does not give us preferential treatment at all. Those are deferred wages. They are wages that are owed to us and at the present time, we're just like any ordinary creditor," said Francois Meunier, chair of the Nortel Retirees Protection Committee.
"What this bill does, is it gives us some higher level of preference so we could recoup the lost money much easier and much faster."
He says the government needs to recognize that pension problems at Nortel could easily happen to other Canadian firms.
"We're kind of the image of what's happening to pensioners today . . . There are many others back there in the wings that it's going to happen to unless the government decides to act," said Meunier.
Although the motion would help protect pension plans across the country, it won't cost the taxpayer anything.
"It will just give pensioners priority over other creditors," said Meunier.
