Malaya
Saturday, December 12, 1998
Philippine Airlines (PAL) scored another legal victory when the National Labor Relations Commissions (NLRC) recently upheld the airline’s decision last July terminating the services of 1,400 flight attendants whose positions had been rendered redundant by the financial crisis gripping the flag carrier.
The NLRC’s third division said the restraining order issued by labor arbiter Jovencio Mayor last July 23 preventing PAL from carrying out the retrenchment was “misplaced and uncalled for.”
The NLRC also upheld PAL management’s rights to implement the retrenchment program, especially at a time when the airline’s very existence was at stake in the midst of the financial turmoil it was undergoing.
“Even as the law is solicitous of the welfare of employees, it must also protect the right of an employer to exercise what are clearly management prerogatives. The free will of the management to conduct its own business affairs to achieve its purpose cannot be denied,” the NLRC said, quoting the Supreme Court.
In supporting the initial complaint of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP), Mayor directed PAL to set aside its notice of retrenchment to around 1,400 cabin crew members and restore them to their previous positions.
PAL appealed the order, arguing that the labor arbiter overstepped his bounds since the Labor Code does not empower him to issue preliminary injunctions, only the NLRC itself is authorized to issue such writs.
“We find (PAL’s) appeal impressed with merit,” the NLRC said.@
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