Breakfast Shed operators want $20M

Breakfast Shed stall owners are asking for a $20 million cash settlement (which would amount to approximately $1.43 million to each stall owner) from Udecott. According to a letter written by Breakfast Shed attorney Kenneth Munroe-Brown, dated February 28, the owners are prepared to accept Udecott’s offer of $1.4 million, subject to a number of conditions.

These include: a) That an additional sum of at least $1.8 million be placed on the table to allow the Breakfast Shed to discharge its statutory and moral obligations to its employees in the disbursement of severance pay and termination bonuses
b) That upon execution date, you arrange for the payment of a golden handshake of $700,000 to each and every cook/member of the Breakfast Shed, “as a thank you gesture from the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago in recognition of the long years of exceptional service to citizen and visitors alike.”
c) That you inject into your proposal a sum of $7 million in a trust fund which will be established for the educational use and benefit of the children of the Breakfast Shed.

These proposals, added to the $1.4 million offer from Udecott, would amount to a total of $20 million or $1.4 million to each of the bona fide members of the cooperative that manages the Breakfast Shed. Udecott had already prepared full working drawings for a new Breakfast Shed to be located at the eastern end of the site and would be in the position to implement this immediately if the proposed cash settlement of $1.4 million was rejected.

The development manager required that the site (on which the Breakfast Shed is currently located) be cleared by March 1, 2005, since delays in this regard would affect the proposed work programme and possibly the overall cost of the project. Udecott has been exploring with the Breakfast Shed the option of a cash settlement as an alternative to the relocation. Negotiations are in progress between the legal representatives of both parties.