5th January 2022

Hundreds of former LIAT employees owed about US$30 million in severance

By Barbados Today

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Hundreds of former LIAT employees are owed about EC$80 million (US$30 million) in severance payments, and one of the unions representing the workers has made a last-ditch impassioned plea to Barbados to summon an emergency meeting with other shareholder governments to conclude a severance pay package for terminated employees.

Speaking to the Barbados Today, Chairman of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) Patterson Thompson said Tuesday his union continues to wait for a response from the Barbados government to two letters requesting a meeting to discuss the plight of the workers who have been on the breadline for the past 21 months.

“We are still struggling. All the LIAT workers are 21 months into having no severance at all; no end in sight to the plight. And it is a very difficult time to live,” he said.

“We are struggling. We have no money to retool, we have no money to pay bills, there is no job on the horizon for us, so we are three times worse over than most people,” the union leader told Barbados TODAY.

The LIALPA chairman dismissed any notion that an early resolution to the payout could be attributed to the decision by Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne to place the St John’s-based airline under court-sanctioned administration.

He contended that in any case, the other shareholders Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica could have intervened and stopped the initiative by Antigua.

“And because prime ministers cannot talk to each other about LIAT, we continue to struggle. So I am just hoping and praying that after the elections that there can be a conversation with the prime ministers about LIAT, getting severance and all the entitlements owed to LIAT workers,” Thompson stated.

The leader of the pilots union is insisting that all nationalities of former employees ought to be compensated for what is rightfully theirs after “putting in their blood, sweat and tears” to a regional airline for as many as 40 years.

“Not only do we need help, we also would like to know what about the future of aviation in the Caribbean. We see other airlines operating in Barbados, homeporting in Barbados. That’s fantastic, good for them. But what about the Barbadians and other CARICOM nationals who lived in Barbados who worked for LIAT. What about their future?” he queried.

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