Regional carrier LIAT said Monday it was confident that trade unions would work with the company to effect the planned closure of city ticketing offices, or CTOs, by the end of June.
LIAT's corporate communications manager, Desmond Brown, said the closures should reduce operating costs, a containment strategy that other airlines have successfully executed as online travel bookings grow.
At present, LIAT maintains ticketing offices in six of its destinations.
"We have already seen major shifts towards telephone and Internet-based booking particularly among the younger generation who tend to favour electronic communication," said Brown.
"At the same time, we continue to have large numbers of bookings through travel agents for those persons who prefer face-to-face contact. In fact, in most of our destinations, we have never had CTOs and have used these other sales channels successfully over the years."
More than 70 employees throughout the region have been made redundant as a result of the decision.
President of the Regional Consultative Council of Trade Unions, Chester Humphrey, who is also head of the Grenada Technical Allied and Workers Union, said the redundancies were "a violation of the spirit of engagement" between the parties and "gross disrespect" of the union.
"We have been negotiating the terms of the exit and a protocol governing this thing. Those talks were inconclusive," he said.
"We were supposed to meet last week and LIAT called for a postponement of that meeting to be set this week and even before us meeting again, they have issued these letters."
But Brown said that LIAT has been discussing the matter with the unions for over a year now.
"We have reached broad agreement on proposals originating from the unions for closure of the CTOs to the best of our ability," said the spokesman for the regional carrier.
The agreement includes plans for a Voluntary Separation and Early Retirement Programme for persons displaced by the office closures.
Brown noted that the company's decision to issue termination letters to its ticketing office employees, to take effect at the end of June, was dictated by the need for moving expeditiously to reduce recurrent costs in a structured manner.
He said the current financial situation in the region meant that every company is constantly assessing its operations in order to manage its cash flow and finances.
"LIAT is no different and we have taken this step in the context of the need to swiftly reduce our operating expenses in a manner consistent with our business plan," said Brown.
"We expect to continue the dialogue with our union partners in the best interest of the company, the affected employees, and the region as a whole."
He said that the total number of affected employees was less than 40 and that responses to the separation programme had been "very encouraging".
No comments:
Post a Comment