Manila: The Supreme Court called for a review of its September ruling which imposed on the Philippine Airlines, the country's flag-carrier, to reinstate 1,400 flight attendants who were retrenched for holding a strike in 1998.
"The court en banc further resolved to recall the resolution dated September 7, issued by the (Supreme Court's) second division in the case. The court further resolved to re-raffle the case to a new member-in-charge," said the Supreme Court's ruling dated October 4, but was released only on Monday (October 10).
In response, leaders and members of the Flight Attendants' and Stewards' Association of the Philippines (FASAP) said the High Court's recent ruling was ‘seriously disturbing".
FASAP has been calling for the implementation of the Supreme Court's pro-FASAP rulings this year and in 2008.
In its September 7, 2011 ruling, the Apex Court dismissed two motions for reconsideration filed by PAL in 2008, and said the airline company did not observe proper procedure when it retrenched 1,400 flight attendants in 1998.
"Many of these employees have since then moved on, but the arbitrariness and illegality of PAL's actions have yet to be rectified..This case has dragged on for so long and we are now more than duty-bound to finally put an end to the illegality that took place," the September 7 ruling said.
Last July 2008, the Supreme Court upheld FASAP and ordered the reinstatement with full back wages of 1,400 flight attendants who were retrenched during a pilots' strike.
