LIAT ex-workers pass grim milestone without due pay

Barbadian former staff of the regional airline LIAT have now gone a year and a month without being paid a cent of the severance money owed to them – a situation so dire it nearly cost an ex-worker’s life, they said Thursday.

Going for 393 days without any payment has led to at least one person attempting suicide and others struggling with depression, losing their homes and their ability to support themselves. Many have had to depend on the support of loved ones, they said.

At a tearful press conference, the ex-workers pleaded for financial assistance from Government to help them get their lives back on track.

Barbados, the largest shareholder among four Eastern Caribbean governments, joined with St Vincent and the Grenadines to sell their stake in the carrier last July after more than a year of wrangling with Antigua and Barbuda, the island-hopping carrier’s home base.

Neil Cave, the spokesman for the 55 former workers, said despite several reassurances from Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan and Minister of Tourism and International Transport Lisa Cummins that they would be compensated, nothing had come to fruition.

He said apart from $2,400, which they received last August from Government, they were still awaiting severance, vacation pay and retroactive pay the airline owes them.

Cave estimated they were owed in the region of $13 million EC dollars ($9.7 million) by LIAT.

He revealed that in desperation, they had written to Prime Minister Mottley on Monday morning seeking another meeting to address their concerns.

Cave told journalists: “We’ve written again to the Prime Minister days ago pleading for some assistance and pleading for justice where this is concerned. We don’t have anywhere else to turn basically and it is a situation that if not fixed, if something doesn’t happen soon, the destruction that is caused to the former workers of LIAT who served this region so diligently will be irreparable I believe and it already is in some cases.

“So we are asking and pleading and begging and urging our Government to come to our aid and come to our aid very, very shortly because it is a very critical situation.”

Given the way he had been treated, Cave said, he no longer has any interest in working in the Caribbean aviation industry.

Former pilot Ronald Field revealed his dreams had been shattered.

He told journalists he had gone from renting an apartment and driving a truck to living in a room at his uncle’s house and being forced to sell his vehicle.

Contrary to popular belief, he added, pilots were not rich and did not work for “hefty salaries”.

Field said he was disappointed in the way he had been treated after serving the people of the Caribbean for two decades.

He said: “In all of these preparations, nobody considered what about the staff. What they were going to do with the staff who has diligently given their lives to this company over the last couple decades and here it is 393 days later penniless, penniless, while the owners of our airline stay silent on the matter.

“I have a daughter living abroad who I try to look after to the best of my ability… I have two parents, both of them are at the age of pension and both of them have been denied non-contributory pension and I try to help them as best I could, along with neighbours and friends.

“This notion of pilots being rich is nonsense. I lived in a one-bedroom apartment…I’ve sold my vehicles, I had a little piece of land I was planning to build a house on. That dream is done because that piece has been sold to pay my bills. My truck has been sold so I can pay off my creditor.

“Eventually, the money I had whittled away to almost nothing and I’m holding on as best I could. My parents help with me food and I am now living in a room at my uncle’s house. It is embarrassing, it is shameful.”

Former cabin crewmember Kelly-Ann Franklin could not hold back tears as she spoke about her sister and another member
of her household who both lost their LIAT jobs.

She queried how Government could offer financial assistance to tourists who missed their flights from Barbados because of a delay in receiving their COVID-19 test results and aid to businesses affected by the February 3-28 lockdown but could not do so for ex-workers.

Franklin told journalists: “My sister was also a cabin crew member. We have a mortgage, we have bills like everyone.

“In my household, both of us were laid off, so think about it, for a year we have been trying to live. We’ve been successful because we had savings but all of our savings are depleted.

“How many people can sit here and say that they can afford to meet their everyday expenses, pay for a mortgage, pay for cars, pay for loans, pay for insurance and all the other things you would have committed to when you had a job. How many people can sit here and say they can afford it?

“It is hard, it is very difficult… I myself have gotten up several mornings crying. I’ve been depressed, but luckily because I have the support of family and friends we were able to get through this together.”
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)