Prime Minister Gaston Browne has revealed that the union representing LIAT workers has rejected an offer by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to make a compassionate payment to the former employees.
The offer is 50 per cent of their severance to be paid in cash, land and bonds.
Browne says the offer will not change.
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Dude stop with the talk of compassion. If it was compassion people would’ve received it already. But sir compassion cannot relieve the airline of its legal obligation to pay and that is the only reason persons have not yet received your “compassion “. Your so called kindness is not kindness at all its ransom.
The f***ing airline was losing money left, right and center, half the time the same workers don’t show up for work when scheduled to and fly nearly free for decades and where the money should come from?
Hacker lol…ppl weren’t getting paid, you work for free? sometimes working almost 2 months without getting paid.
How is this a compassionate payment when these people are entitled to their money and the government is only offering to pay half of that?
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“Tamar” and “Tired”, both of you have ignored some basic principles of law. Firstly, Liat as a legal entity is a separate and distinct from its shareholder governments. Liat is a private company owned by its shareholder governments. This means that the governments are not required to pay any severance to any employee of Liat. Liat as a private company is required to do that by law.
The present situation is that Liat basically crashed. The majority shareholder governments decided to call it quits, but one government decided to try to salvage the airline. That government is offering 50% of what the workers are entitled to so that they can at least get something. That government DOES NOT have to offer anything as it could allow the airline to go into full liquidation, sell whatever assets Liat has and then pay any severance from that. After paying creditors, the most that the workers would get from that is about 10% of what they are due. They also risk getting absolutely nothing since the amounts owed to creditors may exceed the value of the assets.
The Options: Government is offering 50% under the present rearrangement of Liat; or Liat can be collapsed and the assets sold and the workers get a maximum 10%, with the attendant risk that they may get nothing after creditors are paid.
Tell me which option is better. Go, I’ll wait!
I said the same thing.. 50% is better than nothing at all…
He’s a liar. If he is offering something called compassion let it be compassion don’t tie it the employees legal entitlement it’s trickery. Give the ppl the compassion and liquidate and give them the rest or pay the people over a period of time. Nobody cares for his lies. His intention is to short change the staff and use their remaining severance to fund the new airline. Completely unethical. If you are acting independently from liat then the money that liat owes can’t disappear because an ‘independent body’ is willing to pay half liat is still obligated to pay regardless of his fake compassion.
Let world dictator traitor tyrant liar Gaston Browne take a 50% cut in his salary. I know he would never do that.
World dictator traitor tyrant liar Gaston Browne continues to prove we are his financial slaves.
No. The aliat workers deserve all.of their monies. It is a legal requirement. You want to keep Liat, have a guyanese run it, take his full pay and the people who have kept the airline running for decades get nothing?
That will not happen. 50% in land and assets the other 50% in cash.
none is better then you fool
This is how Gaston Browne is able to continue to fool the fooly people of Antigua. The LIAT unions DID NOT REJECT THE GOVERNMENT’S OFFER. Why would they do that?? They simply asked for clarification on parts of the “offer”. What possibly could be wrong with that?? But I nstead of providing simple clarification to the suffering employees the PM has chosen to confuse the issue by incorrectly stating the facts. By so doing he is able to prolong the process with no real apparent intention of paying the employees. In the meantime he continues to publicly boast about the massive wealth his young wife has and continues to accumulate in a short time. Something that other hard working Antiguans are unable to. Imagine how former LIAT workers must feel. Work all your life, can’t get your LEGALLY entitled severance yet must continually listen to these boasts. SMDH…
There is a saying “It’s better to have one bird in the hand then ten in the woods.”
The union seem to be telling the former Liat workers, “it better to have all or nothing”. I hope they have looked at their legal changes and their practical changes. LIAT is a Limited Liability Company. Therefore, the shareholder governments are responsible for the debt of the company up unto their share capital. In simple terms. They are only responsible up to the numbers of share they have purchased. That is the legal side. The practical side is that when you liquidate a company to pay its debtors you are basically destroying capital. Something worth $100 is being sold for $10 in order to get cash quickly. Als known as 10 cents on the dollar. Therefore no company in liquidation will be able to pay all its debtors. And therefore debtor will also have to take a big haircut. The Stanfrd liquidation had lots and lots of assets yet it took them more then nine years to pay some of the staff their severance. To date you have many employees from other companies that were liquidated still waiting for their severance. Half Moon Bay employees have some still waiting while ther have passed on to the other life. Suger Mill Hotel employees. And recently Jolly Beach employees. This government was so instrumental to safe the severance of ALL the ABIB workers when the bank closed it’s doors. No thank yu there from the staff. But it cost the tax payers over $300 million in the end. If the LIAT ex wokers think they can fight for their full severance and see a change of them getting this too. I wish them luck. But remember just look at what practically is happening. You choose and you win or lose. As the PM said if yu guys frustrate the project of restructurring, all that will happen is a new airline will rise called LIAT 2020. And you may try to get money from a banckrupt airline called LIAT 1970.
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