Antigua PM tells Union “take me to court” over LIAT severance

Gaston Browne, CARICOM

“Take me to court.”

That is what Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has told the union representing former LIAT workers in the neighboring island

Browne told the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union that he wants nothing to do with them where discussing 100% severance to ex-LIAT workers is concerned

He said the ABWU is unreasonable to ask Antigua to pay 100% when it only holds a mere 34 percent of shares in LIAT 1974 ltd.

But in a response to the prime minister, the general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union said Browne continues to “bully and disgrace the unions and the workers into accepting, without any negotiation, an offer that is anything but compassionate”

“The workers, by contrast, have been extraordinarily flexible with the shareholder governments on this matter. Do I need to remind you that it was the said workers who agreed in principle to your suggestion of a “haircut” on their entitlements in order to save the airline? But you, Mr. Gaston Browne, have since taken a unilateral approach as to how this settlement of terminal benefits is configured,” Massiah said

Browne has offered a 50% compassionate payment offer in cash and bonds but Massiah said the compassionate offer should not and indeed does not represent the final and full claim of severance payments and other legitimate and legally-entitled terminal benefits of the employees.

“It is considered an interim partial payment of the employee’s entitlements,” he said,

Massiah said, as LIAT employees continue to suffer and cry out for the government of Antigua and Barbuda, as a lead shareholder of LIAT, to live up to its moral and legal obligations, the ABWU remains relentless in its pursuit of justice and meaningful dialogue on the matter of the employee’s terminal benefits.

Last week, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said her government will be dishing out $75,000 in cash to former LIAT workers.

Mottley made the statement while she was wrapping up the debate on the 2023 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals in the House of Assembly

She said the latest decision is in keeping with a commitment from her government to honor about 89 former LIAT workers, paying almost $10 million in cash and bonds in severance.

Prior to that undertaking, St Lucia’s Prime Minister Phillip Jean Pierre also paid off the former LIAT workers in Castries.

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4 Comments

  1. Koshor
    March 20, 2023

    Now you have de Rastafarian and Dreadlocks people on your side you ready to go to war with the citizens of Antigua. Biden will take care of you. Your Balls seem to be too big for your pants? They will make for you a Jumpsuit to fit those Balls.

  2. Ibo France
    March 19, 2023

    This guy is the split image of Adolf Hitler in looks and in deeds. Hitler must have spat Gaston from his mouth.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 5
  3. Ibo France
    March 19, 2023

    St. Lucia and Barbados have done the right thing by making the former LIAT workers whole. This is no handout. It’s money that they have legitimately earned by the sweat of their brows.

    Gaston has a god complex . He believes he is omnipotent. Whatever he does or says everyone should just fall in line like soldiers on a parade.

    He wants to offer a mere pittance to the former employees of what they are owed, and they should take it without even as much of a murmur. Out of place!

    With thug-like, insensate and obdurate rulers such as Gaston, Roosevelt and Comrade Ralphie, agony, misery and poverty would always be the bedfellows of the people they govern.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 1
  4. Noddy
    March 19, 2023

    This lot is getting more brazen by the day. This was bound to come. All you better watch out.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 0

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