WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Hostess Brands Inc., in a Jan. 23 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, is requesting March 21 as the cutoff date for employees to file pay claims. The Irving, Texas-based company currently is subject to 372 union collective-bargaining agreements.
“The debtors desire to have claims filed in the near term, as they presently have employees that can be put to work reconciling them,” Hostess noted in the filing. “Delays in establishing a bar date will potentially lead to periods of inactivity for existing employees while they wait for claims to be filed and would ultimately increase costs by requiring the debtors to retain such employees for longer periods of time than they had anticipated.”
Hostess said it has filed the motion in an effort to establish “an orderly process for parties to assert administrative claims as a key step in making that determination.”
“As part of the motion, the debtors proposed a number of forms of relief that went beyond the assertion of claims and began to look toward how claims might be resolved,” Hostess said. “Ultimately, however, the debtors are amenable to any process that would promote the efficient and fair resolution of claims.”
