(CMC) – Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says the government will be issuing a bond to cover the estimated EC$16.7 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in severance payments to former employees of the bankrupt LIAT 1974 limited.
“Our government is determined to address the concerns of former LIAT 1974 Ltd. workers, especially the more than 400 employees stationed in Antigua,” Browne said as he delivered the EC$1.43 billion national budget to Parliament on Thursday.
He said as a demonstration of this commitment, the government will make good on its promise to cover its share of the severance owed to these workers, based on Antigua and Barbuda’s 32 per cent shareholding, in LIAT 1974 Ltd.
“We will issue a bond for the EC$16.7 million which represents 32 per cent of the severance liability to the 400 hundred employees,” Prime Minister Browne said, adding this will be a 10-year instrument on which payments will begin this month and continue annually, until the EC$16.7 million principal plus interest is fully extinguished.
“Our intervention will provide much-needed relief and demonstrates our dedication to fairness and justice, representing meaningful action on behalf of the affected workers,” Browne told legislators.
The Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) has been calling on the government, which had been a major shareholder in the airline, to negotiate an amicable settlement, but the government has accused the union of not wanting to negotiate in good faith.
The government had originally offered a 50 per cent compassion payment in cash and bonds to the former employees that Browne said amounts to EC$110 million. The ABWU had said in the past that it would continue to seek the 100 per cent severance payment to the former airline employees. The union has not yet responded to Browne’s parliamentary statement on Thursday.
Apart from Antigua and Barbuda, the other shareholders of the airline that went into bankruptcy in January this year were Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Most of these islands have reached agreement with their former LIAT workers on severance payments.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Browne told Parliament that the government has invested over EC$33 million in acquiring three aircraft following its decision to enter into a joint venture partnership with the Air Peace Caribbean Limited to form LIAT 2020 Limited.
Browne said that the government entered into a 30-70 joint venture partnership with Air Peace Caribbean Limited.
“Demonstrating our commitment to regional air connectivity and creating an enabling environment for economic growth and development; we invested over EC$33 million to acquire three aircraft, which were part of the LIAT 1974 Limited fleet, from the Caribbean Development Bank,” Browne told legislators.
He said the airline, which replaced the bankrupt LIAT 1974 Limited, currently serves eight Caribbean territories, namely St Lucia, Barbados; Dominica, St Kitts-Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda.
He told legislators that new routes will be added in the short term, including flights to the northern Caribbean starting with Tortola.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Browne said LIAT 2020 airline was being formed in partnership with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013 that would be putting in close to US$65 million, while the government is investing US$20 million.
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Aieeeeee, criticism ah lick Prime Minister Browne hard, hard, hard. He had to do something after his years of neglect for the former LIAT employees.
Gaston Browne, once again the king of reactionary practices. Bwoy, mi haffi laugh 😂
Better late than never though … 👍🏾
What about ticket holder for liat 1974 need my money back
Another pending general election and Gaston is playing with their emotions again. How many times has he cussed them out before throwing a meager offer? He reminded them that he isn’t obligated to give them anything and he was only being compassionate; now he needs them again so here again comes the chameleon with a softer tone than the last. The former LIAT workers need to refuse his offer and reject him at the polls.
Comrade Brixy boy, your (un)intellectual response to Gaston Briwne’s power moves makes for a bellyful of laughter😅😅😅😅😅.
😂. Yep, Gatson Browne is a hero alright, create chaos and then come back later to clean up the very chaos he created..
He’s like a dog returning to its own vomit.
Like many have said, election must be around the corner for real, or is that Christmas came early with all these promises and millions flying everywhere in his budget speech..
Lol. What a ting.
I need to get clarity on something is it liat 20 or Liat 2020?? In the radio advertising it’s liat 20 but when ever the government speaks about it, it’s liat2020 or is it two different enterties and again Gaston you promising the former workers money this month a really hope you mean it this time because people getting fed up of you and your empty promises
Promises, Promises all left broken. Gaston and the entire liat 1974 have been promising these workers their severance for so long and all now they still can’t get them. You found money to partner with Liat 20. You got money from the Alpha Nero that didn’t even belonged to you. What is keeping you from paying these workers. Do they have to all die? Or just forget about the money
How many of them will die before they get some of severance Gassy? How many?
I think to my knowledge that these former liat 1974 workers has been promised their severance since before the upcoming of liat 20. yet still they are still being promised these severance. i hope every word uttered out of the mouth of Gaston is deemed to be true and not just more broken promises.
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