Aveos workers await final pay

Employees who lost their jobs following the collapse of Aveos Fleet Performance Inc.say they have not been paid for their final two weeks of work.

The workers had expected their final paycheques to be deposited in the bank on Wednesday, but the funds did not materialize.

"This is just one more straw in the basket," said Liz Miazga, a logistics coordinator who worked at the Winnipeg aircraft maintenance plant for 14 years.

"We are a very frustrated group. We didn't want to transfer to Aveos. We are all long-term Air Canada employees who were forced to transition."

Aveos abruptly shut downon March 18and filed for bankruptcysoon after, leavingabout 2,600 out of work across the country, including employees at its Winnipeg, Montreal and Vancouver facilities.

Aveos, a former maintenance division of Air Canada, became a private company in 2007.

The federal government says it will seek a legal opinion on whether Air Canada broke any obligations that may have led to the closing of the maintenance firm, but said there won't be any bailout for Aveos.

Miazga says many employees were counting on their final cheques to catch up on things like mortgages and car payments.

"This paycheque would be for work that we already performedfor the two weeks previous to being locked out," she said.

"So this would have been our final payment. This would not have included any severance or vacation pay or anything else."

Hundreds of former Winnipeg employees met with their unionrepresentatives on Wednesday to discuss their employment insurance claims, as well as provide support to each other.

In a statement, Aveos says it intends to pay base wages earned before March 19, but it needs a bankruptcy court order to do that. Company officials say they expect to be in court next week.