The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU) disregards the latest position advanced by the Gaston Browne Administration on the matter of severance for the former employees of Liat (1974) Ltd. According to last week’s Cabinet notes, the Government “is giving thought to providing 32% of severance liability to former Liat (1974) Ltd staff members in an effort to settle its moral obligation to the former staff members.”
The ABWU considers this latest position by the Government an insult to the workers and a continuation of the high-handed approach that the Government has taken on this issue; an approach that has yielded nothing but a convoluted and dismal pathway to settlement. The latest position by the Government begs the question: How would individuals who have accepted the previous “compassionate offer” fit into this new arrangement? Is the Government going to administer two regimes of settlement? How can this be equitable? Furthermore, how can the Government be trusted to make good on this proposed arrangement when it has failed to settle all of its obligations to those workers who opted into taking the first tranche of the “compassionate offer”? This unilateral approach continues to yield nothing but confusion!
The Union maintains that a fair and reasonable settlement must acknowledge the workers’ just claim to 100% of severance comprising a majority cash component and the remainder organized as shares in any future derivative of Liat.
We do not and cannot accept that it is justifiable for the workers to relinquish their terminal benefits and settle for a fraction of their entitlements while the Airline continues to operate in a state of administration, which was scheduled to have lasted only four months. This July will mark three years since Liat (1974) Ltd. entered into administration and there are many lingering questions. What has this process yielded thus far? What is the projected outcome of the administration process and when will it end? Who stands to benefit from the liquidated assets? Will the Government be forthcoming about the value of the liquidated assets?
Three years of administration seems to be more than enough time for the Administrator and the Government to have determined the future of Liat and set in motion a reasonable plan to settle the outstanding severance for the workers. But what has plagued this process is the lack of transparency by the Government and the Administrator, as well as their outright refusal to be forthcoming with regards to the entire administration process.
This matter needs urgent closure, and the prolonged administration process appears to be nothing more than a tactic to escape the severance obligations. The Antiguan Government, having taken the Airline into administration, needs to set a definitive timeline to conclude this process.
We believe that the Government, like the workers and many people across the region, would wish to see the Airline saved. But this cannot be at the demise of the workers who kept the Liat afloat for decades. A solution to both crises – outstanding severance for former Liat staff and regional travel – is best resolved at the negotiating table, in good faith, transparency and in a spirit of genuine dialogue. In other words, we must work together and not against each other.
The Governments of Barbados and St Lucia have accepted responsibility for settling 100% severance entitlements for their citizens who were employed by Liat (1974) Ltd. At the very least, this sets a moral precedent for the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and the reminding shareholder Governments to do the same – not in part as proposed by the Gaston Browne Administration – but in full.
The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union stands by its call for 100% severance settlement for the workers of Liat (1974) Ltd, and we maintain that this liability falls on the Government of Antigua and Barbuda as a former shareholder, and even more so having assumed interest in the ongoing administration process, and being the main party pursuing a reconstitution of Liat.
We remain ready to engage in dialogue on this matter of severance and the forging of a strong regional airline.