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Prime Minister Gaston Browne is proposing a new solution to the unresolved severance matter affecting numerous LIAT (1974) Ltd. employees across the Caribbean.
The Prime Minister intends to draft a letter to all former airline shareholder governments, suggesting that they forgo payments resulting from the sale of three aircraft held by the Caribbean Development Bank. Instead, the Prime Minister aims to make this money accessible to LIAT employees as part of their outstanding payments.
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has deposited US$12.1 million into an escrow account at the Caribbean Development Bank in order to acquire three ATR aircraft for the newly established airline, LIAT 2020.
The prime minister stated that this proposal reflects his government’s longstanding commitment to fulfill its promise to work towards ensuring that the former LIAT (1974) Ltd. staff receive their severance pay.
“We have always said as a government that we will pay the 32% representing our shareholding in LIAT (1974) Ltd. We have never refused to pay the 32%! We said that all of the shareholding governments should pay; that Barbados should pay based on its shareholding; that St. Vincent and the Grenadines should pay based on that formula and Dominica similarly. We owned 32% so we should pay that amount. At one point we even said we would pay 50%, but we said that was because we wanted the workers to use that to negotiate with the other governments to pay. It was the union, the ABWU, that stood in the way of this happening,” the prime minister explained.
Despite the challenges, the leader of Antigua and Barbuda reaffirmed the government’s commitment to providing severance pay to former employees of the now-defunct airline.
He has suggested that the $12.1 million owed to the Caribbean Development Bank for three aircraft held as collateral should be allocated to the workers instead of being distributed to the shareholder governments and the bank.
LISTEN TO THE PRIME MINISTER FOR YOURSELF:
I am somewhat disappointed by the PM’s vacillation on the deal offered to LIAT (Antigua based workers). An offer has been made, a generous offer at that and due to the partisan resistance of the useless ABWU, rejected. Mr PM you seem to be all over the place these days when it comes to decisive decision making. It’s time to move on and not allow the ABWU to succeed in derailing plans for a successful return of LIAT. LIAT workers are not the only aggrieved group of workers, sad to say. What about, for example the scores of persons who have served on various Boards during and before your tenure who have NOT been paid for years. Many have already died; others are on tge verge of dying!! Yet you, Sir, continue to play tag with LIAT workers. I, like many, AM NOT IMPRESSED!