S2.E12: Drowning With LIAT, Months On End

The Big Issues

Laid off LIAT workers have started the new year (2022) with no resolution to the question of severance and entitlements owed to them by the defunct company. Many former employees here are pointing the finger at the government of Antigua and Barbuda, a major shareholder. But the government here says it isn't interested in pumping any more money into meeting the obligations of a doomed entity beyond all that it has already sank into the company over so many years.

Despite its tradition as a shareholder government of coming to the rescue whenever LIAT is in turmoil, it's made it clear for months now that this time, the same relief is not going to be extended. But what does that mean for workers? It means they continue to wait to collect their severance and entitlements out of whatever will be leftover from the ongoing resolution of LIAT's assets and debts, whenever that happens.

In the meantime - which has been a very long meantime thus far - the government is deflecting blame for the collapse of the airline, heaping responsibility instead on pilots, unions, other governments and management. The unions are decrying the government's position as cruel, asking that it accept responsibility for meeting its defunct company's obligation to former workers. Both parties spar in the media over the issue.

Recently though, the government has offered a partial life raft to former workers in the form of "compassionate" payout packages to support them financially, but is doing so unilaterally, and seemingly without wishing to be drawn in to any arrangement in which it acknowledges a concrete obligation to do so on the basis of its stake in the defunct company. On this episode we ask: What is LIAT’s position now? And is an amicable resolution any closer to being realized?

This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on January 23rd, 2022. The host is Kieron Murdoch. The guest is:

1. The Hon. Lennox Weston MP, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Minister of Public Works. In Parliament, he is the member for St. Phillip’s South, as has been since March 2018. He is a member of the board of LIAT, representing the government of Antigua and Barbuda.

Get the latest news from Antigua and Barbuda at the Antigua Observer online.