ANTIGUA-PM Browne reiterates position regarding severance payment to former LIAT workers

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has reiterated his position that regional governments “have a moral obligation” to treat the issue of severance payment to former employees of the cash–strapped LIAT (1974) Limited even as two shareholder governments have paid their nationals.

Barbados has joined St. Lucia in announcing a payment scheme for the LIAT workers in their respective islands. Still, Browne reiterated last week’s position when he said that his administration was no longer prepared to meet bilaterally with local trade unions to discuss the issue and that efforts should be made to include the other shareholder governments of the airline.

“I understand that the (Barbados) liability may be capped at about 10 million. I stand corrected if it is more, but I got the impression that it is between eight and 10 million,” Browne said.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the Barbados government would pay the three-year-old outstanding severance owed to former employees amounting to BDS$10 million (One BDS dollar=US$0.50 cents).

She told Parliament last week that her administration would fully compensate the 89 Barbadians impacted when the Antigua-based airline terminated hundreds of its employees from across the region in 2020 without paying severance.

“We want therefore to announce…that the government of Barbados will take responsibility for all of the Barbadian workers and that the government of Barbados will pay up to BDS$75,000 in cash to every person in terms of their calculated severance liability and that any number for severance over BDS$75,000 will be paid in bonds.”

The former LIAT workers, including pilots, have been demanding the millions of dollars (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) owed in severance and other benefits.

In January, the St. Lucia government made good on its promise to pay compensation to former employees of the cash-strapped regional airline, with the workers receiving bond certificates from the government that is cash redeemable and can also be used as collateral to secure loans.

In 2021, the Antigua and Barbuda government offered two million EC dollars to partially satisfy the cash component of the compassionate payout to former LIAT workers here.

The significant shareholders of the Antigua-based airline, which entered into administration in July 2020 following increased debt and the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Browne said that Barbados, the most significant shareholder government, estimated at 52 percent, has limited its liability.

“It means, therefore, that the other remaining 100 million dollars…we expect that certain entities here in Antigua and Barbuda would expect Antigua and Barbuda to come up with the remaining 100 million dollars since Barbados has a 52 percent shareholder, is only covering 10 million.

“.I am not telling the government and people of Barbados what to cover, but I believe that all of the shareholding governments of LIAT have a moral obligation to treat the situation equitably and apply a regional solution rather than a national treatment”.

Browne warned, “if all of us pursue a national treatment, then obviously there will be displacements.”

Last week, the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) called on the government to re-think its hardened position, warning Browne that he does “not get to close the door on this LIAT matter.”

Before entering into administration, LIAT had been servicing several regional destinations and has since scaled down its operations and is now servicing Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten.

Last month, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their 44th regular summit in the Bahamas, far from solving the woes experienced by regional travelers following the collapse of the intra-regional airline LIAT in 2020.