DOLE ready to step into PAL-FASAP row to avert strike

By Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star) Updated October 02, 2010 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is ready to step into the dispute between the Philippine Airlines (PAL) management and a group of flight stewards and attendants to prevent a work stoppage in the country’s flag carrier.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said she would use her “reserve power” to help if PAL and the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) fail to come up with an agreement next week.

“If there is very clear proof that all efforts have been exhausted and yet no agreement has been reached, I may have to use the reserve power to assume the case and come out with a decision simply because of national interest,” Baldoz said in an interview.

Baldoz explained that as labor secretary she is authorized to assume jurisdiction over the labor dispute and order concerned parties to observe status quo and avoid taking drastic action, like going on strike.
“In this case, DOLE is looking not only at the interest of the PAL management or the union of flight attendants, but more on the interest of the riding public,” Baldoz said. “PAL is still the national carrier and that is the reason we have to protect the airline from possible strike,” she pointed out.
The labor chief said DOLE’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) has set a conciliation meeting between the two parties on Tuesday.

“In a last ditch effort to settle the dispute, NCMB has called the two parties to meet again and we are sure that both of them welcome the resolution of this case at arbitration level,” Baldoz said.
Earlier, FASAP junked PAL management’s offer of P105 million in salary increase, expanded maternity benefits and changes in the retirement age to 45 from the CBA-mandated 40.
PAL’s only condition for the extended retirement age is for junior domestic cabin crews to fly international routes alongside their more senior counterparts and for the international cabin attendants to also fly domestic.

To prevent any work stoppage, PAL appealed to DOLE to immediately intervene in the case.
“If the DOLE secretary decides to take over the case and prevent FASAP from exercising the right to strike, then we expect her to also address the discrimination issue of female flight attendants,” FASAP said in a statement.

As this developed, the militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) expressed their support for FASAP’s planned work stoppage.
FASAP has announced plan to strike by the end of this month or early November.

The flight attendants’ union wants the retirement age raised from 40 to 60 years in order to remove the discrimination reportedly being endured by PAL’s predominantly female flight crew.