The Government on December 20 made 2 million dollars available to LIAT’s court-appointed Administrator for part payment of severance owed to the airlines severed workers in Antigua and Barbuda.
Approximately 90 per cent of LIAT workers were let go last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the airline owes millions of dollars to these workers.
The Antigua Government has placed on a table an offer of 50 per cent of entitlement owed to these workers in the form of cash, bond and land, however, the union’s representing the former employees continue to reject the compassionate offer.
This 2 million dollar sum the government says is intended to meet partial satisfaction of the cash component of the compassionate pay-out which it has volunteered.
The government continues to appeal with other shareholder governments; Dominica, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Heads of governments where LIAT operates to pay their part of the money owed to former employees in their country.
President of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association, Patterson Thompson said during a recent interview that it was unfair to the government of the twin-island state to be expected to pay the full amount owed to the former employees on its own.
