ANTIGUA & BARBUDA HOTELS & TOURISM ASSOCIATION

Friday April 17, 2020, St. John’s Antigua and Barbuda. Hundreds of employees within the Hospitality sector are receiving the first installment of Relief Funds released from their Thrift Fund Accounts with over EC$300,000 being paid out this week.

The Thrift Fund was established in 2010 and currently has seventeen (17) Resorts on Antigua that are contributors to the Fund. Both the ABHTA and the ABWU are Trustees of the Fund and have formed a joint agreement to release up to 50% of available funds to qualifying employees within the respective resorts.  Employees who have registered to the Relief Fund will this week receive the first of six (6) payments of EC$640. The funds will be paid fortnightly for the next three months.

Vernon A. Jeffers, Snr, Chairman of the ABHTA stated that “We are pleased to be able to come together and collaborate with the ABWU on a project as important as this. Our focus is squarely on our employees and ensuring some measure of financial security during this challenging time. Over the next six (6) weeks and estimated EC$2 million dollars in Relief payments would have been released to employees”

David Massiah General Secretary of the ABWU remarked that “This is only the first of two initiatives we are working on for our members in the sector. Our focus over the past two weeks has been to mobilize the Thrift Fund payment.  Our teams are now focused on our Stage two plans of delivering Care Packages. Our plans are well underway and we are looking forwarding to updating our members on when registration will continue”.

Employees who are interested in accessing their Thrift Fund should contact their respective employers Human Resource Departments. For any specific questions on how the funds will be distributed, please contact the ABHTA at 462-0374/4928 or ahta@candw.ag