Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc., which is days away from completing liquidation sales at most of its 399 remaining stores, wants to distribute $1.75 million in payments to its top 14 executives.

Former Borders Group Inc. President Mike Edwards, also former CEO of the Borders Inc. unit, would receive a $125,000 severance payment under the company's latest proposal. Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

The bookstore chain filed a motion with theon Friday asking for approval to distribute the payments.

The payments would include $125,000 apiece to former Borders President Mike Edwards, former Chief Financial Officer Scott Henry, Executive Vice President of Store Operations Jim Frering and Senior Vice President of Human Resources Rosalind Thompson.

Borders, in the motion, describes the payments as severance packages — not bonuses. Executives will not receive a bonus plan previously proposed by Borders because the company did not successfully emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Edwards and Henry were "voluntarily terminated" on July 29, but Borders attorneys said in Friday's motion that the former executives "continue to work actively on a non-compensated basis to assure the successful sale of certain store sites and (Borders’) intellectual property."

It also said Frering, Thompson and the other managers — who still work for the company — "are working tirelessly for the benefit of all creditors, yet are currently working themselves out of a job upon completion of the task."

The motion went on to state that all the former executives "worked long, hard and to the absolute best of their abilities" on behalf of Borders "until the day they were terminated."

Edwards, who served as CEO of the bookselling Borders Inc. unit, recently declined an AnnArbor.com request for an interview. He told AnnArbor.com in a social media message that he was "moving back to the West Coast and getting on with my life."

Borders is believed to have up to 400 employees at its corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor when it announced July 18 that it would liquidate. More than 10,000 employees will lose their jobs at the chain's store network, including the flagship store in downtown Ann Arbor and the superstore in Pittsfield Township.

Meanwhile, former Ann Arbor corporate Borders employee Jared Pinsker filed a class-action lawsuit last week claiming to represent 300 Ann Arbor workers and accusing Borders of flouting a federal act that requires major employers to give their workers 60 days notice before laying them off.

In its motion Friday, Borders said corporate employees would receive 1 week of severance for every year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.