Jan Tharp, CEO for Bumble Bee Seafoods, is asking a Delaware Bankruptcy judge to allow the beleaguered company to keep employee bonus programs that plan to pay out millions of dollars to executives during the tuna giant's Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.

"I believe it is common for companies like the debtors (Bumble Bee) to have annual incentive programs like ours, and we consider ours to be a normal course component of our compensation practices," she told the court Tuesday.

The company's annual incentive program (AIP) is needed for competitive employee compensation and to ensure Bumble Bee can "attract, recruit, and motivate" employees as well as help lower turnover, she said.