Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:53:00 08/04/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The government cannot compel pilots who resigned from Philippine Airlines to work at the flag carrier again because that would be “involuntary servitude,” Sen. Franklin Drilon said Tuesday.
“You cannot force anybody to work if they do not want to,” said Drilon in an interview with reporters.
Drilon said the pilots, however, could be charged with breach of contract and could be liable for damages.
Aides of President Benigno Aquino III were involved in crisis talks, amid fears that a situation that has so far mainly affected domestic flights could hit international services causing knock-on damage to the national economy.
“We want them all back,” PAL president Jaime Bautista said on local ABS-CBN television, although he stressed the company could not compete with the hefty salaries offered by airlines abroad.
Bautista said PAL was able to pay its top pilots only about $11,000 (about half a million pesos) a month, while overseas rivals were offering double that.
Entitled to seek higher pay
The moderate labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said PAL could not stop its pilots from seeking better-paying jobs overseas and then force them to fly its planes.
TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said professionals were “entitled” to seek out better-paying jobs available to them.
“Professionals are entitled to go wherever their skills will get the greatest reward,” Herrera said in a statement.
The TUCP includes the PAL Employees’ Association (Palea), the flag carrier’s union of reservation clerks, maintenance crew, caterers, cargo handlers and load controllers.
“If employers or companies can invoke their need to stay profitable in order to justify indiscriminate job cuts, then surely professionals and other staff are also entitled to abandon their posts in favor of greener pasture elsewhere,” said Herrera, a former senator. Reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Philip C. Tubeza and Agence France-Presse
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