By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Silver Airways employees in Exuma and Eleuthera are without jobs and collectively owed more than $100,000 in redundancy payments after the airline abruptly ceased operations on June 11, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida.

A total of 17 local employees were affected, with approximately $77,000 owed to workers in Exuma and around $30,000 to those in Eleuthera. The airline’s collapse has disrupted key domestic routes and left lingering questions about worker compensation and service continuity.

A redundancy proposal dated May 6 outlined terms including two weeks’ pay for each completed year of service for line staff and one month per year for supervisors. It also provided for pay in lieu of notice, vacation pay, and prorated compensation for partial years — all based on a 40-hour work week.

Director of Labour Howard Thompson confirmed that a trade dispute had been filed in early May, with conciliation talks yielding a settlement sent to Silver’s Fort Lauderdale office. However, follow-up has stalled.

“I’ve taken steps to try to contact Ms Labrioli, to no avail. She has not returned my calls or my messages, but I’m going to continue to try to get an update, at the very least for the former employees at Silver Airways just to find out what’s happening,” Mr Thompson said.

He said employees are likely priority creditors and floated the idea of interim payments.

“One of the main questions I would like to ask Ms Labrioli is, could there be some sort of part payment towards this amount while they wait for the liquidation to go ahead, seeing that employees’ outstanding funds are, as I am advised, ranked priority over every other creditor.”

In the meantime, Mr Thompson said the Department of Labour is actively seeking employment for the affected workers. “Unemployment is down significantly, so many opportunities out there. So I have no doubt that the market will absorb these new workers that are now on stream,” he said.

While the labour fallout continues, tourism officials say contingency plans have mitigated passenger disruptions. Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper previously announced that Bahamasair will increase capacity on affected routes beginning June 23. The Ministry of Tourism is also working to recruit additional carriers.

At a separate event yesterday, Dr Kenneth Romer, Director of Aviation and Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Tourism, said the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board notified Family Island properties of potential disruptions, and smaller carriers like Makers Air and Tropic Ocean stepped in swiftly.

“I’m not aware of any persons who have been stranded because of Silver ceasing operations,” he said. “We’ve been proactive. We’ve responded.”

He added that Bahamasair is preparing to resume service from Fort Lauderdale into Georgetown — one of Silver’s key routes — and that other carriers are responding as well.

Dr Romer called Silver’s projected contribution of 80,000 passengers from June to December “significant”, particularly to Family Islands. “I don’t even want to downplay the contribution that they would have made,” he said.

Though he could not provide a figure for displaced passengers, Romer estimated that on the day Silver ceased operations, “a little over 100 plus persons” might have been looking to travel to Fort Lauderdale from The Bahamas. When asked about support for Silver’s former employees, Dr Romer said: “Our prioritisation is Bahamians first.”

He noted that the Ministry of Tourism has worked closely with the Department of Labour and that the Deputy Prime Minister “made interventions on behalf of displaced Silver employees in Exuma.”

“We have reiterated a very strong message that no one will come into this country and mistreat Bahamians,” he added. “They will get what they are entitled to, and we are committed to supporting any Bahamian who might have been disenfranchised.”

As to the disruption in service, Dr Romer defined the “fallout” as a gap of roughly a week and a half between Silver’s exit and Bahamasair’s entry into affected routes. He said that with Bahamasair and other small carriers stepping in, continuity has largely been restored.