James Nickle is owed about $11,600 by his former employer, Goodwill of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario.

He thinks he’ll be lucky if he sees a quarter of that.

Nickle, a truck driver and union steward at Goodwill, is listed as one of almost 700 unsecured creditors in a statement of affairs obtained by the Star. The document highlights Goodwill’s precarious financial condition and the number of people — the majority of them employees — who might never see the money they’re owed.

Goodwill, which closed all of its 16 stores, 10 donation centres and two offices on Jan. 17, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 7.

At that point, Goodwill had about $1,300 in its bank account, $800,000 in assets and just over $6 million in liabilities.

Among those who are collectively owed $6 million, most are former employees, CEO Keiko Nakamura confirmed — anywhere between a few hundred to thousands of dollars each.

Unsecured creditors generally are lower priority when it comes to distributing remaining assets. Under the Wage Earner Protection Act, an employee of a bankrupt company can receive up to $3,000, plus four times their maximum weekly earnings.

For Nickel, that would still mean a shortfall of roughly $8,000, which affects his bottom line.

“I have a mortgage … I’ve got bills, like everybody else,” he said.

Nakamura said she filed for bankruptcy for the employees’ sake. “They’re primarily why we wanted to secure as much of the assets as possible,” she said.

Among its assets, Goodwill lists about $250,000 worth of “used clothing, housewares and other donated items.”

Nickle said he had little faith in plans to revive the organization.

He questioned how the bankruptcy proceedings would help workers recoup their wages, adding that he saw a truck full of inventory being picked up from Goodwill Toronto’s main headquarters in Scarborough on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t make sense to me, because she was on the radio saying she’s protecting our assets so we can get paid. But my severance just went out the door on a tractor trailer.”

Goodwill’s best shot at surviving, Nickle said, was an angel investor offering to take over and shore up the charity.

“Obviously they are going to have reapply to Goodwill International, but I’m hoping that there’s an investor or investor willing to come forward and bring the whole company back without Keiko there,” he told the Star.

Nakamura said she hadn’t talked to Nickle, and that it was hard for her to respond to his complaints without knowing more.

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“I am the only individual connected to this company right now … I’m the only one who has the ability to take us through this process,” she said.

Employees can contact the trustee for more information on getting access to money they’re owed by calling (905) 883-8715.