With their financial situation “growing extremely dire”, former LIAT employees have now sent a petition to Prime Minister Mia Mottley pleading their case and again urging her to use her “influential voice” to help them get the estimated $9 million in severance that is owed them.
A handful of the approximately 54 affected residents delivered the petition with just over 2,200 signatures to the Clerk of Parliament this morning to the attention of the Prime Minister.
“We have waited and pleaded on deaf ears for the shareholder Governments to do the right thing by seeing that we receive monies owed. Our financial situation is growing extremely dire by the minute,” the former LIAT workers said in their letter to the Prime Minister.
As such, they said they were submitting the signatures from their “viral petition” to Mottley with the hope that the promised meeting in 100 days with them that was due since September 2021 to discuss when they would receive severance payments would actually take place. They also want a date to be set for when those severance payments would be made and they want some indication when they would receive other due entitlements including vacation pay, notice pay, final salary and pension payments.
Noting that they have been suffering for the past two years, the despondent former aviation workers said while they were not casting blame or judgment, they simply wanted to be able to feed their families and meet their obligations that were “well past due”.
“Madam Prime Minister, we are beseeching you to do the right thing and follow the example from the St Lucian Prime Minister, a non-LIAT shareholder, who has publicly promised a severance settlement for his citizens who were employees of LIAT 1974 Ltd, under humanitarian grounds. Certainly, as the majority shareholder more can be done. Consequently, we are hoping that you would do the same and settle the Barbadian former workers of LIAT,” they said.
“We feel that if you use your well respected and influential voice to encourage a humanitarian solution, other Caribbean leaders will follow and an overall regional solution to this crisis can be realised,” they added.
Retired former executive of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Delcia Burke told members of the media she was extremely disappointed that after two years of trying to have the matter resolved there has been very little movement.
While acknowledging that shareholder governments did not have a legal obligation to pay severance to the former LIAT workers, she said she was hoping that morality would prevail, and the petition would also give Prime Minister Mottley a nudge to come to their rescue.
“We certainly believe that they have a moral responsibility. No one has taken responsibility to do anything for these workers, and I think Barbados, as the largest shareholder government, should set the example and try to negotiate a settlement, even if it is not severance pay, because the majority of these workers are still not working,” said Burke.
She said the impression that was given at the start of the saga just over two years ago was that a way would be found to pay the workers, who were laid off in March 2020.
“We at one point at the social partnership, were told they found a way to help these workers and we were really looking forward to getting some help,” said Burke.
A year ago, Mottley arranged for the severed airline workers to receive a one-off $2,000, followed by an advance of $2,000 per month from Government, which is to be paid back at a future date from any eventual severance settlement.
However, some of them complained that two months shy of the promised 12-month period, the payments stopped.
Burke said she understood that some of the former LIAT workers were still unable to find a new job and they were “seeing severe financial difficulties”.
Former LIAT pilot Neil Cave told reporters he was hoping that “at least on moral grounds this suffering can be put to an end”.
Cave expressed disappointment that promised communication from Government has not been forthcoming.
“As difficult as it is not knowing when you are going to be paid what you are legally and morally entitled to, there is no communication. You are being treated terribly and not being communicated with, and that is equally as stressful,” he said.
“It is extremely taxing to just not have anybody saying anything to you. This is not the Caribbean way. This is not how we do things . . . and this is not how I know Caribbean leaders to respond to people, to human beings. We can do better and that is all we are asking for,” added Cave.
“The Prime Minister is extremely eloquent as we all know. She is quite respected throughout the world right now and what is coming across from a lot of people is that . . . we feel if Prime Minister Mia Mottley chooses to lead this and put herself behind this, there would be a solution. There is no doubt that there would be a solution to this problem and a regional solution,” he said.
The former LIAT workers said they were eagerly awaiting word from Mottley but they have not set a deadline. They indicated that should Mottley ignore their petition their plan going forward was to continue agitating. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
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