By Aabigayle McIntosh
The West Indies Oil Company Limited (WIOC) has won a case against Lawrence Gonsalves, a service station operator, in the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda.
The dispute was about the operation of the service station at Friars Hill Road, where Gonsalves had been the Managing Operator for around 44 years.
WIOC claimed that they owned the property and had given Gonsalves 8 months’ notice of the termination of the Service Station Operational Agreement.
In response, Gonsalves requested an extension of time to operate the service station, and WIOC granted an extension until August 31, 2023.
However, Gonsalves requested a goodwill payment of about EC$1.5 million and severance to employees at an estimated total of EC$372,000 as a condition of his return of the service station operations to WIOC.
WIOC refused the request, stating that they had no obligation to make any payments to a Managing Operator. According to WIOC, the Managing Operators had the use of their property and equipment while retaining all the profits from the operation during the contractual period.
Severance payments were the sole responsibility of the employer, who, in this case, was Gonsalves.
Since the government of Antigua and Barbuda has the majority shares in WICO, Lawrence Gonsalves didn’t expect he was going to win the lawsuit. The judges answered to Gaston Browne and Cutie Benjamin. Mr. Gonsalves, I am sorry that you’re going through this underthe wicked and evil hands of the ABLP. Majority of the people in Antigua and Barbuda knows that Gaston Browne is behind you vacated the area because he has his eyes set on that location. It is a very liquid asset area to have a business, especially a Service Station. People of Antigua and Barbuda, especially Antigua, need to wake up before it is too late under the hands of Gaston Browne as Prime Minister.