The Antigua and Barbuda Workersβ Union (ABWU) has taken note of recent remarks by Prime Minister Gaston Browne regarding an additional tranche of funds being made available to former LIAT 1974 Ltd. workers under what has been described as a βcompassionate offer.β
While any financial relief to displaced workers may provide temporary assistance, the ABWU remains firm in its position that the former LIAT workers MUST NOT be deprived of their full severance entitlements. Severance is not a favour, nor should it be reduced to an act of charity. It is an earned entitlement arising from years of loyal service.
The Union strongly rejects the unjust and cruel posture adopted by the Gaston Browneβled administration in refusing to accept the workersβ right to severance. The administrationβs stance on this matter has inflicted unnecessary hardship and prolonged suffering on hundreds of former employees and their families.
These sporadic and fragmented payment offers will not suffice! Rather, they underscore the apparent apathy and even disdain this administration has shown toward the affected workers. If the Browne administration were genuinely concerned about the workersβ well-being, it could have made a meaningful start by honouring severance payments for those falling within the lower tiers of the outstanding amounts, while committing to liquidate the larger balances as funds became available. Such an approach would have demonstrated good faith and delivered tangible progress. Instead, this administration has shown no real sincerity or commitment to resolving this long-standing issue.
Further, contrary to Browneβs claim of maintaining dialogue, the administration has for the past five years, shut down all meaningful engagement with the workersβ legally appointed representativesβthe Antigua and Barbuda Workersβ Union. This deliberate exclusion of the ABWU from discussions affecting the welfare and future of these workers is indefensible and shameful, particularly from an administration that claims a βpro-labour philosophy.β
The ABWU reiterates that the so-called βcompassionate paymentsβ cannot and must not replace a just severance settlement. Workers are not seeking handouts; they are demanding fairness, dignity, and respect.
The Antigua and Barbuda Workersβ Union once again calls on the government to abandon this domineering approach and to return to constructive dialogue with the Union, with a view to resolving this matter in a manner that is fair and humane. Anything less continues to perpetuate the prolonged and unnecessary suffering that far too many former LIAT workers have been forced to endure.
