Antigua, Thursday September 9, 2010 – The management of regional airline LIAT says it has drafted a new Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) – based on the ruling of an arbitration panel two months ago – that it wants both sides to sign soon.
But the pilots union has given the company a week to either implement all the decisions of the panel or at least reach agreement on the way forward.
LIAT’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Challenger issued a statement yesterday, saying that certain matters still had to be clarified. But, he said, “based on the ruling from the arbitration panel and following several exchanges of communication with LIALPA, we have prepared a draft Collective Agreement which we hope will form the basis for review by both sides and allow for an early signature of the agreement once the remaining areas of clarification are resolved.”
“We have already taken action to implement those aspects of the award which had a clear timeline for implementation and we are putting in place the mechanisms to facilitate the necessary administrative and logistical changes, some of which are quite significant to our operations, in order to achieve earliest possible implementation of the agreement,” Challenger added.
The LIAT CEO said that the company had been in contact with LIALPA and discussions are planned at which he hopes a date can be set for the signing.
But the LIALPA Chairman, Captain Michael Blackburn, has warned LIAT that unless all recommendations of the arbitation panel are implemented by next Wednesday, the company will face action.
“Implement them all together or come to an agreement with me. You cannot decide to unilaterally implement and cherry pick as you see fit without discussing the matter with the sole bargaining agent for the pilots,” Blackburn told a local radio station.
The arbitration panel had been set up following an agreement brokered by the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines in July 2009, as they sought to settle long-standing industrial relations issues between the company and its pilots.
The panel was led by retired Barbadian jurist Sir Leroy Inniss QC. It handed down its ruling on July 5th.
Source: Caribbean360.