Cut costs, or close down Guardian Business Desk Guardian 06.10.03 Government is prepared to allow BWIA to go into liquidation, if the airline does not succeed in cutting its labour costs. Government's inter-Ministerial committee on BWIA summoned the airline's Board of directors to a meeting at Whitehall yesterday. The message at the short meeting was blunt: produce a plan to reduce the carrier's labour costs by June 16, or there will be no more State funding. Trade Minister Kenneth Valley confirmed the meeting, saying: "We simply called them with respect to the 'no more funding unless they reduced their labour costs'." Because of BWIA's challenged finances, the withdrawal of State funding will mean the airline's instant closure. Contacted for comment, a senior attorney, who requested anonymity, said: "In law, if BWIA does not get wage concessions and the Government withdraws funding, the directors would be forced to call a meeting of the creditors, who can pass a resolution putting BWIA into a creditors' liquidation." This would mean, the attorney said, that the severance payments to workers would be in jeopardy, as such payments are made after the claims of secured creditors. At last Thursday's post-Cabinet press briefing, Valley gave BWIA the Government's ultimatum that the airline reduce its labour costs, and possibly its workforce, if it is to continue to receive more taxpayers' dollars to survive. Valley then said BWIA had until one week to present Government with a plan to reduce its labour costs. Prime Minister Patrick Manning and BWIA's Board chairman, Lawrence Duprey, did not attend yesterday's meeting. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************