Jay Rockefeller: “Specifically, the amendment will do two things. First, it would allow employees to recover more of the back pay or other…”

“Specifically, the amendment will do two things. First, it would allow employees to recover more of the back pay or other compensation that is owed to them at the time of the bankruptcy. Second, it will ensure that retirees whose promised health insurance is taken away receive at least some compensation for their lost benefits. In the simplest terms, employees sell their labor to companies. They toil away in offices and plants and factories and mills and mines because they are promised that at the end of the day they will receive a certain compensation. Many workers then have a difficult time recovering what is owed to them by their employer when their company, as so often happens these days, files for bankruptcy. Under current law, employees are entitled to a priority claim of up to $4,925. That is it. The legislation we are debating would increase that claim to $10,000, which is better. But even that figure is usually not enough to cover the back wages, vacation time, severance pay, or payment benefits the employees are owed for work done prior to the bankruptcy. Congress needs to update the amount of the priority claim to ensure that more workers are able to receive what is rightfully theirs. My amendment, thereby, would increase the priority claim to $15,000. So we are basically going from $5,000 to $15,000. My amendment would also eliminate the accrual time period for calculation of priority claims.”