Pilots banking on LIAT meeting

Some 28 to 30 Barbadian pilots employed by the Antigua and Barbuda-based LIAT airline are hoping for financial relief coming out of a shareholders’ meeting this weekend.

The pilots, who joined the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) in late 2018, are owed millions of dollars in back-pay, damages awarded by the Antigua courts, pension and gratuity.

In addition, General Secretary of the NUPW Delcia Burke told Barbados TODAY this afternoon that the pilots, who were laid off in March when COVID-19 brought operations at the airline to a halt, are also facing possible termination.

“If the lay-offs continue after June 30, 2020, severance payments will be triggered as per the collective agreement between LIAT and the LIALPA [Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association],” Burke stated, adding that once the company starts hiring again, these pilots would be re-employed based on seniority.

“They have to get first chance if they decide to take back on pilots. They can’t come and hire somebody else,” she declared.

The union leader lamented that the Barbadian pilots have not received any money since their last pay packet in March.

“These pilots are employed under Antigua and Barbuda legislation, and since unemployment benefits are not paid in that country, they have received no money since they were last paid in March 2020,” she stated.

Burke said while her union understands the effect of COVID-19 on the airline industry, the NUPW “hopes that high on the agenda will be discussions that bring financial relief to the Barbados-based pilots when the shareholders of LIAT meet over the coming weekend”.

She recalled that apart from monies owed, the local pilots have other outstanding grievances which they have been trying have addressed by the company.

The union leader said that the NUPW outlined those grievances at a meeting on February 7, 2020, attended by LIAT Director of Human Resources Ilean Ramsay, a Samantha May-Francis and HR Consultant to LIAT Edward Bushell.

She said that LIAT had agreed to respond to the union by Feberuary 28. 2020, but that the deadline came and went with no response forthcoming.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb