Gonsalves says LIAT plan will consider workers’ plight

Barbados and other major shareholder governments of collapsed airline LIAT on Wednesday sought to assure its employees that urgent attention is being paid to their financial suffering.

The assurance was contained in a letter to staff by the chairman of the regional airline’s shareholder governments, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

In the letter dated Tuesday, a copy of which has been obtained by Barbados TODAY, Dr Gonsalves acknowledged that the workers are owed outstanding pay -an issue he said is high on the shareholders’ agenda.

“The major shareholders are mindful of the difficult circumstances and the outstanding salaries due. This remains a high priority which will be addressed as a matter of urgency,” the Vincentian prime minister wrote.

The correspondence, which sought mainly to update employees on the new reorganization plan proposed by Antigua and Barbuda and agreed to by the remaining stakeholder governments of Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, said consideration was given to the St Johns’ initiative instead of liquidation.

“In response to the proposal of the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, the major shareholders expressed the desire not to stand in the way of the government in pursuing a reorganization,” said Dr Gonsalves.

“In this regard, the major shareholders discussed a way forward which would allow the Governments of Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines to divest their shareholding in the company to Antigua and Barbuda.”

Dr Gonsalves told the employees that the way forward includes an approach to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to sell three ATR-42 aircraft and use the proceeds to proportionately reduce the shareholders’ indebtedness to the bank under its fleet modernization loans.

“The Government of Antigua and Barbuda will proceed to file the application to the court for the administration of the airline under the newly-enacted rehabilitation provisions for companies,” he stated.

Dr Gonsalves told the staff that once this application is filed, the shareholders will consider a deferral of the LIAT general meeting.

On Tuesday, Barbadian pilots for the carrier said the plan to save it from liquidation does not address their dire financial straits which find some of them on the brink of eviction from their homes.

A pilot who spoke on behalf of the local commercial flyers, but who declined to be named, told Barbados TODAY that he and his colleagues are not only worried about a plan that does not offer any financial solutions to their desperate situation but the state of mind that could exist if called upon to fly the planes again in an unsettled environment.

He said: “Not only that you have had to deal with COVID, had to deal with the layoffs which so many people have, but the fact is, you are not getting your due entitlements including what was due from March; you are not getting severance, you are not getting notice of pay, you have gotten nothing.

“The next thing is that at the end of the day when all is said and done, these people that are suffering – aviation is a very serious business that requires a lot of focus – so, at the end of the day when people go through all of this, you are still talking about putting these people back in aeroplanes, at the tail-end of a hurricane season, in this kind of mindset?”

He described as a “very serious and terrible” situation the idea of putting the lives of people in the hands of pilots who have been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, cannot put food on their tables, pay their bills or be paid what is due to them.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb