Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Palea president’s absence prompts resetting of mediation meeting

Monday, 08 November 2010 13:36 Recto Mercene / Reporter
Business Mirror

THE meeting between Philippine Airlines (PAL) executives and officials of the PAL Employees Association (Palea) was reset to November 11 by the National Reconciliation and Mediation Board (NRMB) after the Palea president, Gerry Rivera, failed to attend and was represented only by two board members of the association.

The meeting was called on Monday to iron out the conflict between PAL and Palea, after the flag carrier announced last week that it is following the decision of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) allowing the airline to terminate some 2,600 employees after it spun off three of its noncore businesses.

Despite the announcement, however, Palea filed a second notice of strike on Friday.
PAL management questioned the factual and legal basis for the notice of strike filed by Palea last week before the Dole.

During the conciliation meeting, the team from PAL Human Resources Department and PAL’s external legal counsel said Palea should state clearly its specific allegations against the airline that warrants the filing of a strike notice.

“PAL management will check and verify whether there’s any truth to Palea’s claims that some PAL managers were allegedly involved in individual bargaining, even coercing some rank-and-file workers to accept the separation package approved by Dole,” PAL spokesman Cielo Villaluna said.
Until completion of the verification process, PAL lawyers insisted that these remain to be allegations that do not constitute justification for a strike notice.

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