{"id":154909,"date":"2022-06-30T09:26:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T13:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=154909"},"modified":"2022-06-30T09:26:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T13:26:51","slug":"tourism-minister-urges-regional-leaders-to-unite-to-save-liat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/tourism-minister-urges-regional-leaders-to-unite-to-save-liat\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Minister urges Regional Leaders to unite to save LIAT"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A government minister is calling on regional leaders to come together to discuss ways to ensure the survival of regional airline LIAT \u2013 and help its former workers who are still owed millions in unpaid severance. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES. <\/a><\/p>

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Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez told Observer that the carrier is crucial to connectivity and tourism.<\/p>\n

Former LIAT pilots recently made an impassioned plea \u2013 for the umpteenth time \u2013 for regional leaders to \u201cbring an end to the suffering\u201d of those awaiting compensation, and desist from blaming them for the carrier\u2019s failure.<\/p>

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An outcry erupted earlier this month after St Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves implied that staff should shoulder some of the blame for LIAT\u2019s downfall due to repeated strike action and a poor work ethic.<\/p>

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It is important for trade and people-to-people exchange. I think it is important for the islands to get together once again and commit to ensuring that LIAT continues to fly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Former LIAT pilots and others have been questioning why the major shareholders in the carrier \u2013 the governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and Grenadines, and Dominica \u2013 cannot unite to resolve the issue.<\/p>

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The shareholders have however made individual efforts to support the employees based in their respective countries, whether through financial or social assistance.<\/p>\n

And St Lucia, which is not a majority shareholder, has promised to pay all former LIAT workers in the country.<\/p>

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The government of Antigua and Barbuda has previously maintained that it can only offer the severed employees a \u2018take it or leave it\u2019 agreement of 50 percent of the monies owed, payable in cash, lands and bonds<\/p>

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Terminated workers have been on the breadline since March 2020 after the airline took a nosedive amid the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of ex-staff are owed millions of dollars in severance and other payments, and some of them have gone public to document the hardship they and their families face with payouts stalled.<\/p>\n

To date, LIAT remains in court-sanctioned administration as Antigua and Barbuda continues its bid to save the airline. A downsized version of the carrier has been operating a reduced schedule with a limited workforce since November 2020. – OBSERVER<\/em><\/p>\n

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A government minister is calling on regional leaders to come together to discuss ways to ensure the survival of regional airline LIAT \u2013 and help its former workers who are still owed millions in unpaid severance. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES. 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