Nortel moves to end U.S. retiree health benefits

Nortel is seeking for a second time approval to end healthcare benefits for some 4,500 retired workers in the U.S.

The company, which is in bankruptcy and seeking to shut down all operations, has asked a federal court in Delaware for permission to terminate benefits, Dow Jones Newswires reported Wednesday.

Nortel also wants to end payments to 215 disabled U.S. workers who have continued to be paid since the company filed for bankruptcy three years ago.

At one time Nortel employed more than 8,000 people at its campus in Research Triangle Park.

Courts stopped an earlier Nortel attempts to end the benefits.

The company has 17 employees left on its payroll, Dow Jones reported.

Nortel has sold virtually all its assets and raised some $9 billion through those sales. 

Nortel’s pension plan has already been shifted to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

Nortel declared bankruptcy in January 2009.