ABWU Demands Full Severance and Renews Call for Protection Legislation as Cost Pro Supermarket Shuts Without Warning, Sending Over 100 Workers Home

More than 100 workers at Cost Pro Supermarket have been thrown into immediate financial uncertainty after the business abruptly shut its doors permanently on Thursday evening — issuing termination letters at approximately 6:00 p.m. and declaring every position redundant without prior notice, without consultation with the workers’ union, and without any confirmed commitment that severance and other statutory entitlements will actually be paid.

How It Happened

Staff arriving for what they expected to be a normal workday on Thursday were informed that the supermarket was closing permanently and immediately. Termination letters, dated July 9, 2026, were distributed to employees advising them that Cost Pro Supermarket would no longer operate.

“We regret to inform you that Cost Pro Supermarket will be closing its business operations permanently and will no longer operate,” the letter stated, adding that employees’ final day of employment was July 9 — the same day they received the notice.

Management indicated that payroll records would be reviewed to determine outstanding wages, accrued vacation pay, notice pay, and severance benefits in accordance with Antigua and Barbuda’s labour laws, with separate payment statements promised by July 17. Workers were instructed to return all company property, including uniforms, identification cards, keys, equipment, and documents.

Workers Fear They Will Never Be Paid

Despite those written assurances, employees have alleged that they received no firm commitment that outstanding wages, severance, or other statutory benefits will actually be paid. Adding to the anxiety are unverified allegations circulating among staff that the company and its owner may be preparing to leave Antigua and Barbuda — claims that have not been independently confirmed but which have heightened fears that workers could be left with nothing.

ABWU Mobilises Immediately

The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union moved swiftly. General Secretary David Massiah and President Kem Riley visited the supermarket on Thursday evening shortly after the closure was announced, meeting directly with distressed workers seeking answers about their employment status and outstanding benefits.

On Friday morning, Massiah and a team of union officers held a formal meeting with the displaced workers at the ABWU’s Freedom Hall headquarters to discuss their rights and entitlements arising from the redundancy and outline the support the union will provide throughout the process.

The union’s message to the former employees was unambiguous: the ABWU will pursue every available avenue, including action before the courts, to ensure the employer honours all statutory obligations — including severance pay, notice pay, outstanding vacation pay, and any other benefits to which the workers are legally entitled.

Affected employees have been advised to gather their letters of employment, pay slips, and other relevant employment records to facilitate the accurate calculation of their entitlements.

“We Have Seen This Before”

The ABWU used the Cost Pro closure to renew a call it has been making for years — for the government to implement Severance Protection Legislation establishing a fund to safeguard employees’ entitlements when businesses close or become insolvent.

“Had this been in place, as we have been advocating for several years, the affected employees of Costpro would not be facing uncertainty over the payment of benefits they have earned through years of service,” the union said.

The ABWU drew direct parallels to previous closures that left workers in the same position. “We have seen this situation before with the Jolly Beach Resort, LIAT (1974) Ltd and Tranquility Bay. Cost Pro workers should not have to relive it.”

The union said the existing legislative framework does not provide sufficient protection for employees’ earned benefits when companies become insolvent or discontinue operations. “Workers should never have to wonder whether they will receive the severance to which they are legally entitled,” the ABWU stated.

A Pattern the Law Has Not Fixed

The Cost Pro closure is the latest in a recurring pattern that has affected workers across multiple sectors of Antigua and Barbuda’s economy — businesses closing suddenly, employees left scrambling for severance, and a legal framework that offers statutory entitlements on paper but no mechanism to guarantee payment when the employer that owes them disappears.

The Jolly Beach Resort closure left hundreds of workers fighting for benefits for years. The collapse of LIAT (1974) Ltd left regional airline workers across the Eastern Caribbean in a protracted battle over severance that remains unresolved. Now, over 100 Cost Pro employees join that list — workers who showed up to their jobs on a Thursday and by 6:00 p.m. were out the door with a termination letter and a promise of a payment statement in eight days.

Until Antigua and Barbuda enacts the kind of severance protection fund the ABWU has been demanding — a mechanism that would hold employer contributions in trust so that workers’ entitlements survive even when their employers do not — every employee in every privately held business in the country works with the same vulnerability that Cost Pro’s staff discovered on Thursday evening: the knowledge that everything they have earned can be placed in jeopardy by a single letter, on a single day, with no recourse but hope and the union.

The ABWU has confirmed it will stand with the former employees of Cost Pro Supermarket until every outstanding entitlement has been paid in full.