ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Wednesday July 7, 2010 – The end to the longstanding dispute between the management of regional airline LIAT and its pilots could possibly be in sight, following a decision by an arbitration panel that had been set up to settle their issues.
The three-member panel, led by retired Barbadian jurist Leroy Inniss, handed down its decision on key aspects of a new collective agreement between LIAT and the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) on Monday.
Both sides have declined to give details of the rulings and recommendations.
But LIALPA Chairman Captain Michael Blackburn told a local radio station that he was “conditionally satisfied” and was looking forward to the matter being completely settled shortly.
In a statement issued yesterday, informing the media that the company had received the panel’s decision, LIAT’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Challenger said the document represented “an extremely balanced approach to the outstanding areas of disagreement that have plagued relations between LIAT and LIALPA over a number of years”.
“We now look forward to sitting down with LIALPA in arranging for the finalization of the documents to reflect the rulings and recommendations of the arbitration panel. Our legal and finance teams are already hard at work in this regard and we hope that we can finalize this matter with LIALPA in a timely manner,” he added.
Challenger continued that LIAT had maintained all along that it remains committed to an equitable and just award for pilots: one which is consistent with what is happening in the economy and industry generally, which reflects what is happening with other employee groups, and which is sensitive to the company’s ability to continue to function as a going concern.
“We believe that these concerns have been factored into the arbitrators’ rulings,” he said.
Inniss, along with retired Director-General of Civil Aviation of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Herald Wilson and retired pilot and former Chairman of LIALPA, Captain Desmond Ross, were called upon to settle the dispute between the Antigua-based LIAT and the pilots’ union after the two sides failed to resolve outstanding issues over salary and benefits.
The decision to take the matter to arbitration was made at a meeting in Kingstown, St Vincent on July 28th, 2009, which was attended by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Prime Minister of Barbados David Thompson – the leaders of LIAT’s shareholder governments.
While the tribunal’s hearings and subsequent ruling were awaited, LIAT and LIALPA remained at odds, with pilots taking two days of sickout action last month that forced the airline to cancel more than 200 flights.