FORMER LIAT EMPLOYEES BEG – HELP US PLEASE, DO LIKE ST LUCIA’s PM
Nine months ago, we the former employees of LIAT 1974 LTD started a petition to raise awareness of our plight.
Despite 2,273 of you signing the petition, which was submitted to the Clerk of Parliament in Barbados on June 14th, 2022, unfortunately our plight has once again fallen on deaf ears.
Many of the former employees across the region are still depressed and are facing dire circumstances despite their best efforts to rebound after not been compensated in any way since 2020.
Other public appeals and petitions have also been ignored.
The Shareholder Governments namely Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, and St Vincent and The Grenadines should hold their heads in shame as they have left hundreds of their citizens and former employees in the dark as it pertains to the status of the severance due.
DO NOT BE FOOLED!
It was widely publicized the former employees were offered a 50 per cent severance payments from Antigua and Barbuda.
The offer of 50 percent was nothing more than a golden calf. Most of the staff turned down this offer as it required them to sign away their rights to their legal entitlement to full Severance.
This anonymous staff member added – Some of the former employees who took that offer after being owed hundreds of thousands of dollars ended up receiving less than 5 percent of what they were owed with many still waiting for funds to be sent to their accounts. Also, it is alleged that to date they have NOT received the land or bonds component that was communicated to be included in the settlement.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne has a lot of explaining to do! Not only were the former employees in Antigua not paid, and were also promised jobs, that were purportedly negotiated by the Government with an airline in the United States of America, which proved to be futile, since many that applied were immediately denied on the basis of not having green cards.
But wait, it gets worse!
The Administrator of LIAT 1974 LTD (In Administration) who was to submit to the OECS Court a report on the resuscitation plan for LIAT has been tight-lipped and has not said a word to the employees on when they can expect their settlement that he himself said was due to them. Yet the company continues to fly one plane under the guise of administration while the staff remain without their due. This should not have been permitted and should not continue.
The former staff of LIAT 1974 LTD continue to be treated unfairly and have been kept in the dark for the past two and a half years.
Do you think this is right? How would you feel if you were not paid for over two and a half years with no explanation as to when and if you would receive your severance?
In Barbados, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley promised to give the former workers of LIAT 1974 LTD in Barbados an update back in June 2022. To date, those staff have heard nothing from her on what the Barbados Government is doing to fulfill their promise of assisting in getting the issue of the owed severance resolved for the workers.
Surely Prime Minister Mottley could do much more to solve this unjust situation.
Imagine Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre of St Lucia, a non-shareholder of LIAT 1974 LTD, heard the plight of the former workers from his island and sought to put an end to it. He made a promise and delivered on it. In December 2022, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre awarded all former workers from St Lucia 100% of the value of their severance owed to them by LIAT 1974 LTD.
Yet the 4 other Governments of Antigua, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent and The Grenadines who are major shareholders of LIAT, cannot find it in their hearts to end the suffering of the remaining staff members.
We will not be silent about this issue! We will not stop speaking out about this injustice. We are still suffering and need to have this issue rectified immediately!
The other Shareholder leaders should without doubt take a page out of Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre’s book. Pay us what we are owed if there is an ounce of decency left!
