Chairman Favors LIAT being declared an Essential Service

LIAT chairman Gene Holder says he favours the regional airline being made an essential service to protect it from wild cat strikes like the one launched last week by the company’s pilots.

The essential service debate has been re-ignited by Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.

Barbados-based Holder argues that the service that LIAT provides is an essential one and that that status should be recognized officially.

“But I would hasten to assure the trade unions that that will not in any way deprive them of their rights,” Holder told WINN FM’s The Bigger Picture.

He says striking without notice can be devastating, as has been experienced by LIAT.

“The whole idea of the notice is that the employer and you may be able to sit down and you can discuss your concerns and they can be addressed without withdrawal of service which punishes the client,” the LIAT chairman said.

Giving conditional support to the essential service argument is the former deputy premier of Nevis, Hensley Daniel.

He says just declaring LIAT an essential service without ensuring that employees are properly taken care of would be unfair.

“So, it requires a certain level of management, a certain level of resources, a certain level of commitment to them. Because if you are going to expect them to be running all the time then you have to expect to be taking care of all of their respective needs,” Daniel said.

Source: Caribbean News Now