St John’s, Antigua (CMC) – Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says the government will be issuing a bond to cover the estimated EC$16.7 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in severance payments to former employees of the bankrupt LIAT 1974 limited.

“Our government is determined to address the concerns of former LIAT 1974 Ltd. workers, especially the more than 400 employees stationed in Antigua,” Browne said as he delivered the EC$1.43 billion national budget to Parliament on Thursday.

He said as a demonstration of this commitment, the government will make good on its promise to cover its share of the severance owed to these workers, based on Antigua and Barbuda’s 32 per cent shareholding, in LIAT 1974 Ltd.

“We will issue a bond for the EC$16.7 million which represents 32 per cent of the severance liability to the 400 hundred employees,” Prime Minister Browne said, adding this will be a 10-year instrument on which payments will begin this month and continue annually, until the EC$16.7 million principal plus interest is fully extinguished.

“Our intervention will provide much-needed relief and demonstrates our dedication to fairness and justice, representing meaningful action on behalf of the affected workers,” Browne told legislators.

The Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) has been calling on the government, which had been a major shareholder in the airline, to negotiate an amicable settlement, but the government has accused the union of not wanting to negotiate in good faith.

The government had originally offered a 50 per cent compassion payment in cash and bonds to the former employees that Browne said amounts to EC$110 million. The ABWU had said in the past that it would continue to seek the 100 per cent severance payment to the former airline employees.  The union has not yet responded to Browne’s parliamentary statement on Thursday.

Apart from Antigua and Barbuda, the other shareholders of the airline that went into bankruptcy in January this year were Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Most of these islands have reached agreement with their former LIAT workers on severance payments.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Browne told Parliament that the government has invested over EC$33 million in acquiring three aircraft following its decision to enter into a joint venture partnership with the Air Peace Caribbean Limited to form LIAT 2020 Limited.

Browne said that the government entered into a 30-70 joint venture partnership with Air Peace Caribbean Limited.

“Demonstrating our commitment to regional air connectivity and creating an enabling environment for economic growth and development; we invested over EC$33 million to acquire three aircraft, which were part of the LIAT 1974 Limited fleet, from the Caribbean Development Bank,” Browne told legislators.

He said the airline, which replaced the bankrupt LIAT 1974 Limited, currently serves eight Caribbean territories, namely St Lucia, Barbados; Dominica, St Kitts-Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda.

He told legislators that new routes will be added in the short term, including flights to the northern Caribbean starting with Tortola.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Browne said LIAT 2020 airline was being formed in partnership with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013 that would be putting in close to US$65 million, while the government is investing US$20 million.