New York (CNN Business) The owner of Sears promised to pay out tens of millions of dollars in severance to employees who lost their jobs. Now he wants to get out of it.

Former Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert — who bought the remains of the bankrupt company earlier this year — is threatening not to make $43 million in pension payments to thousands of workers who have lost their jobs over the last year in multiple rounds of store closings

Lampert disclosed that plan in court documents filed recently, the existence of which were first reported late Tuesday.

Lampert also denied that he is responsible for making some payments to creditors he says Sears Holdings is trying to force him to pay, according to the filing. Sears Holdings is the bankrupt remnants of the old Sears. It exists only to settle claims against it involving its few remaining assets.

Lampert had previously agreed to pay the severance to workers who lost their jobs before and during Sears' bankruptcy. Creditors objected to Sears paying severance to people laid off before the bankruptcy, so those workers never received an exit package.

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