Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee has approved a committee to negotiate a settlement with the union involved in a $35 million labour dispute tied to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, a PIA-owned property at the centre of Pakistan’s redevelopment plans. The move is intended to clear legal and financial hurdles around the asset, while the same meeting also backed a higher borrowing limit for the hotel and a sovereign guarantee linked to the wider Roosevelt and PIA investment structure.
The dispute stems from an arbitration award won by the union last November, with severance obligations estimated at about $35 million and further employee-related costs adding roughly $1 million a month. The new committee will draw members from the defence ministry, finance ministry and Privatisation Commission, alongside US-based legal counsel and two board members from PIA Investment Limited.
Officials are seeking a one-time settlement that would close grievances, withdraw related legal cases and secure union support for redevelopment approvals and other clearances. The Roosevelt Hotel remains a key asset in Pakistan’s aviation-linked privatisation and asset monetisation efforts, and the labour case has threatened to complicate that process.