Workers’ Union president is confident that a future UPP Administration will support a Severance Protection Fund

Kem Riley, president of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU),
says the institution would be able to achieve even more for workers under a
United Progressive Party (UPP) Administration.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Party’s convention on Saturday,
April 20, Riley said one of the priority items on the Union’s agenda is
establishing a Severance Protection Fund – which the Gaston Browne
Administration has failed to support.

He explains that, on too many occasions when businesses collapse, their
longstanding workers are forced to go home empty-handed – in spite of the
moral and legal obligations to pay employees their severance and gratuities.
However, with a Severance Protection Fund, companies would be required to
set aside a portion of their payroll, so that, in the event of insolvency, workers
can access their entitlements.

Riley says that, so far, the Union has had preliminary discussions with the
leadership of the UPP on the setting up of this fund; and it has “no doubt that
this fundamental protection for workers will become a reality under a United
Progressive Party Administration.”