PM Gaston Browne threatens to abandon LIAT after pilot files class-action lawsuit
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said yesterday that he could be forced to hasten the liquidation of the company; while distancing his government from any liability arising therefrom. The government of Antigua and Barbuda has threatened to end all support to LIAT 1974 Ltd if “pilots and those who represent them” continue to frustrate its efforts to salvage the struggling airline. Browne, who positioned himself as the airline’s champion, was speaking on the heels of a class-action lawsuit was filed against his government by a LIAT pilot in Bridgetown, Barbados.
“If this pilot and those he represents continue to frustrate our Herculean efforts to salvage LIAT 1974 Ltd … it’s unfortunate; that despite our best efforts to salvage LIAT and our undertaking to honor up to 50 percent of the severance liability on a compassionate basis; that this type of disruptive behavior is being pursued to undermine our efforts,” Browne told our newsroom. According to reports in Barbados Today, the constitutional motion which was filed last week Wednesday is challenging the constitutionality of the recently amended Companies Act which prohibits anyone from suing the government over any claims against LIAT. The motion, lodged by Barbadian Captain Neil Cave on behalf of nine other current or former LIAT pilots, is asking the Antigua and Barbuda High Court to declare that the newly-amended Act is unconstitutional.
The claimants, who have named the Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda as the only defendant, want the court to order that they be awarded costs and/or other relief the court may deem just. They are also requesting that the court declares that Section 564 (1) of the Companies (Amendment) Act No 17 of 2020, is in contravention of Section 15 (8) of the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda to the extent that it purports to limit the claimants’ right to access the court for a determination of their civil claim against LIAT 1974 Limited which was filed in 2015 and was pending at the time the Act was enacted by Parliament. In his affidavit, Captain Cave outlined four grounds on which relief is being sought.
According to Captain Cave’s affidavit, the Constitutional motion arose from a matter on May 27, 2015, when the 10 pilots instituted a claim against their employer seeking certain declarations and orders regarding pension monies deposited in an Antigua bank and before that, into a CLICO International Life Insurance fund without the authority of the pilots’ union and “in clear breach” of the existing collective and other agreements. The pilots contend that the pension monies ought to have been deposited under the rules of the LIAT (1974) Limited Staff Provident Fund 1989 and Trust Deed, dated 27th June 1990, arising out of a 1977 arbitration award.
The affidavit observes that with the collapse of CLICO, LIAT pilots lost over $5 million in monies “unlawfully” deposited into the CLICO fund by the airline. The defense to the LIAT pilots’ claim, the senior Barbadian pilot said, was filed by the airline on December 14, 2016, more than one year and six months after the filing of the claim. “That position was also echoed by the attorneys for the appointed administrator Mr. Cleveland Seaforth who was also present,” he said in his affidavit. The carrier, which has battled financial instability for years, was grounded in June 2020 after severe losses attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and a reported US $4 million loss in 2019. Browne recently disclosed that the government of Antigua and Barbuda is proposing to cover about 50 percent of LIAT’s severance liability.
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