The approximately 90 dismissed pilots of the soon to be liquidated airline, LIAT, are unhappy about the way they have been treated by the airline recently.
And head of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) Patterson Thompson said he was concerned that they have not yet been given any indication when they were likely to be paid severance and any other monies due.
At the same time, one economist is predicting that the already struggling shareholder governments “might have to dip in their pockets” to pay severance.
Last evening the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves expressed in a letter that a most important priority of the airline is the welfare of the staff.
Gonsalves, who noted that the struggling airline had been challenged in the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, added that the payment of outstanding salaries and severance would be “urgently addressed”.
However, Thompson said while he understood there was no doubt the pandemic had a hand in the current circumstances facing the airline, he believed the situation may have given rise to a certain thought process of resetting labour contracts in various parts where management felt were too difficult to handle.
“I think it is an excuse for them,” he said.
He complained that pilots first learned about the loss of jobs through the media while LIALPA has been following protocols as much as possible by going to management first with its concerns and not to the media.
“We have followed that and look at how we have been dismissed. So that in itself is problematic,” he said.
In early April, the airline announced that it was suspending several services and laying off staff in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Barbados TODAY understands that the first set of 76 pilots out of a total of just over 100, were dismissed at the beginning of April. Two other sets of pilots were placed on the breadline at the end of the month and by early June a final set was dismissed.
It is understood that only the chief pilot, the assistant chief pilot, the chief training captain and about nine others, most of whom are senior pilots, remain with the airline.
LIALPA is just one of about 16 unions in the region that represent LIAT staff.
Thompson told saidthe matter of severance was a “serious” one given that a number of the pilots had put in several years of service.
The airline is said to owe approximately EC$94 million in severance and holiday payment, which it is currently unable to pay. It was not immediately clear how much of that amount is owed to the pilots.
“We went home with nothing in our hands,” said Thompson, who expressed concern about the airline’s ability to settle its payments or when.
“A lot of pilots have given their complete adult life to LIAT. I have one pilot who is set to retire next year, after 42 years. There is another who is set to retire this October and he has given 30 odd years to LIAT. To tell these gentlemen they don’t have severance or they may have to take a haircut or cents on the dollar is a difficult thing to swallow in these times,” he said.
He said while he understood the business structure of the airline, he expected that the company has “a moral obligation” to pay severance. “You don’t want to set a bad precedent throughout the region,” Thompson added.
“For me, I don’t know how they are going to get it done other than going into the court. There is no other real step to take,” said Thompson, who added that pilots still had retroactive pay to collect on an incremental increase they were given about three years ago.
“We haven’t gotten it yet. We went home without a cent, three months now. I am home three months now without any form of income and it is tough,” said the father of three.
The LIALPA head said over the years the organisation may have come across as being a troublemaker, but that was far from the truth.
“It was not a matter of LIAPA trying to pull down the airline. We have always fought for our conditions, our contractual obligations. We are the lowest paid pilots in the region for the class of aircrafts that we fly, and we have just been trying to keep our heads above water,” he said.
As talks begin to emerge of airlines possibly seeking to take over the operations of LIAT, Thompson suggested that once LIAT is liquidated and a new airline formed the laid-off workers should be given first pick.
The winding up of the current operation must be approved at the annual general meeting and go through a process.
A general meeting of all the ordinary shareholders and creditors will be called soon for the purpose of considering the closure of the airline.
In a separate interview, economist Dr Justin Ram shared his analysis, pointing out that the issue of payment was one that had to be worked out, with “certain categories” of creditors to be paid first.
He said “There is sort of a priority with respect how you wind down a particular organisation”, adding that the leased aircrafts would have to be returned, debts on remaining aircrafts would have to be settled and creditors paid.
“Maybe here the governments might still have to dip into their pockets in order to pay out whatever remaining severance, but we can only hope that this happens in a very peaceful way and amicable way so that we can come out of this stronger and be able to build back better,” he said, adding that an already difficult situation had been made worse by the pandemic.
“I am sure that the governments will put in place the right mechanisms to ensure that whatever is due to the employees is paid out in an equitable manner,” said a hopeful Ram.
(Barbados TODAY)
