There may yet be a last-minute reprieve for some of the veteran CHCH TV employees who were kicked to the curb last week with the sudden and shocking bankruptcy of the company that employed them.

Their future could hinge on a labour law principle known as successor employer rights and how those rights intersect with bankruptcy legislation, according to a couple of university law professors.

Nearly 130 full-time and almost 40 part-time employees of CHCH were left jobless Friday in the wake of Channel 11 Limited Partnership's stunning bankruptcy announcement.

Channel 11 LP, a subsidiary of Channel Zero Inc., provided the news content to CHCH TV for the parent company and employed the on-air news personalities, producers and camera operators, who were unionized members of Unifor.

Shortly after the bankruptcy announcement, a privately held numbered company offered 58 full-time jobs and 23 part-time jobs to some of the former CHCH news employees to provide what appear to be the same services as Channel 11 LP.

Many longtime on-air personalities, such as Matt Hayes, Ken Welch and Donna Skelly, were not offered jobs with the new company.

By going bankrupt, Channel 11 LP appears to have avoided its obligations under the collective bargaining agreement with the union, which would have governed such items as seniority rights, departure notices and severance payments.

Michael Lynk, a Western University labour law professor, said he expects Unifor will file an unfair labour practice complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board arguing that the new company is simply a successor to the company that was taken into bankruptcy.

If the board ultimately agrees that the new company is a successor employer, Lynk said, "the union stays in place, the collective agreement stays in place — it governs and binds a new employer — and the provisions in the collective agreement with respect to severance pay, with respect to how layoffs are going to be ordered, has to follow through.

"So those who were jettisoned, particularly if they were senior employees, may well have the standing, if the union is victorious, to get their jobs back," Lynk said.

The quick rehiring of some employees by a new company and a leaked email from a CHCH account manager suggesting Channel 11 LP was disbanded in part to free itself from "old Union employees and their demands" would be factors considered by a labour relations board, Lynk added.

"Was this a genuine bankruptcy and a contracting out or was it really just a legal ruse to avoid the law?" Lynk asked. "The factors seem to indicate it may well be the latter."

Channel Zero spokesperson Sarah Gardiner said Tuesday that the account manager "is not a spokesperson for the company and she doesn't have any insight into leadership decisions."

Gardiner said the assertion in the email is false. "Many unionized employees were hired."

Anthony Duggan, a University of Toronto professor who specializes in bankruptcy law, said the issue will likely "turn on whether the new company is carrying on substantially the same business as the old company."

A bankruptcy is designed to be equitable and concerned with issues of fairness, he added.

"If parties set up a sham transaction in order to avoid their obligations or invoke the bankruptcy system as a way of avoiding their obligations, then the courts have an overriding discretion to look at that," said Duggan.

"The courts take a dim view of parties, particularly in bankruptcy proceedings, trying to avoid their obligations using either the bankruptcy system or technicalities."

A spokesperson for Unifor said the union is still considering its next steps. Union representatives were scheduled to meet with Channel Zero officials Wednesday afternoon.

"It would be hard for me to imagine any mainstream union taking this sitting down, particularly a union like Unifor," said Lynk.

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In a written statement to the Spectator Tuesday, Channel Zero vice-president Chris Fuoco said the company is "engaged in a dialogue with Unifor to transition former employees of Channel 11 LP into the new company.

"Matters relating to successor employment are part of that dialogue," Fuoco stated.

The first meeting of creditors in the Channel 11 LP bankruptcy will be held Dec. 21 at 10 a.m. at the Homewood Suites hotel on Bay Street in Hamilton.

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