PAL readies contingency plan in case of strike

August 15, 2010
ManilaStandardToday

PHILIPPINE Airlines is ready to deploy administrative and other staff if its ground and cabin crew strike, airline president Jaime Bautista said Friday.

Passengers may also be transferred to PAL’s 134 partner airlines in case of flight disruptions, Bautista said in a statement.

“As part of our conditions of carriage, we commit to our passengers that we will bring them to their destination whether through extra flights or through PAL’s domestic and international interline partners,” Bautista said.

Some 2,600 members of the PAL Employees Association and the 1,600 members of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines have threatened to strike over a dispute pending before the Labor Department.

But Bautista said he hoped an amicable solution could still be reached in the continuing talks with the union representatives. Employees have threatened to strike if management goes ahead with a plan to outsource its catering, ground handling and call center units.

Flight attendants are protesting against the company’s plan to retire them when they reach the age of 40, calling the move “discriminatory and unreasonable.”

Bautista said the moves were “a valid exercise of managerial prerogative” and were necessary for the airline’s survival.

Earlier this month, Philippine Airlines canceled at least 11 flights due to a shortage of pilots after some 25 of them resigned for flying jobs abroad because of higher pay. Jeremiah F. de Guzman