Lebanese politicians and union leaders are preparing for negotiations to defuse the crisis at the country’s Middle East Airlines (MEA), as indications grew over the weekend that the company was considering filing for bankruptcy, reported the Daily Star newspaper on Monday.
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's two-day official trip to Cairo on Monday, according to a General Labor Confederation (GLC) official, will put the issue "on hold" for 48 hours, buying time for both sides to hammer out a solution.
After an emergency meeting of MEA's board of directors and Central Bank officials Sunday, the company released a statement saying that if the dismissal plan is not implemented by the end of the month, MEA "will be no longer able to carry out its operations and will go before the competent court to request MEA's inability to pay, according to the Commercial Code."
"This is an extremely serious and realistic step, based on purely legal, financial and economic considerations," the statement added, cited by the paper.
The company outlined a series of steps it had taken in recent years to enhance employees' salary and benefits status, resulting in a "very lucrative" compensation plan offered to the more than 1,400 workers facing dismissal.
The government seems to be adamant about enforcing the restructuring plan, and the banner headline in Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Sunday maintained that MEA was "preparing to declare bankruptcy," which could mean little compensation for the company's entire 4,000-strong workforce, according to the paper.
A GLC official told the paper that with MEA lacking any assets because it leased its nine planes instead of owning them, the bankruptcy option could spell disaster.
"What assets is MEA going to present to a bankruptcy court?" the official asked. "Its furniture?"
Meanwhile, GLC vice-president, Bassam Tleis, vowed that the group would not drop its backing of MEA unions and said it rejected seeing the national carrier's liquidation.
He told the paper that "the issue will be held up for a few days, until Hariri returns from Egypt."
Tleis dismissed the idea that the meeting of MEA's board and the Central Bank was decisive for the company's future.
"Do you believe that there's such a thing as an MEA board of directors?" he asked sarcastically. "There's a (government) employee named Mohammed Hout (the MEA chairman), and the Central Bank. Everything depends on Hariri."
Tleis said the GLC did not reject restructuring but rejected dismissals or bankruptcy – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
