President Benigno Aquino III has stepped in to sort out the PAL battle with employees. In an assumption order dated December 15, the President directed the airline and its labour union, the PAL Employees’ Association (PALEA), “to desist from undertaking any action that will aggravate the situation.”
The PAL management was given 10 days after it received the order to file a comment on the President’s move to intervene in the labour dispute. The same order also directed PALEA to “desist” from proceeding with a planned strike. Aquino, however, did not specify in his order when he will decide on the labour dispute.
The PAL management, meanwhile, welcomed Aquino’s assumption order that stopped PALEA’s strike plans and hold the flag carrier’s spin-off program that would have resulted to the layoffs.
“The order stopping the strike is the best Christmas gift the Palace can give to thousands of anxious PAL passengers with scheduled flights this holiday season. The strike ban will assuage the anxiety of our passengers in the midst of PALEA’s repeated strike threats,” PAL President Jaime Bautista said in an article posted late Wednesday on PAL’s website.