PAL employees ready for bargaining talks

Monday, 11 October 2010 00:00
The Manila Times
BY DARWIN G. AMOJELAR SENIOR REPORTER

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea) said it has submitted a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to the management of Asia’s first airline carrier for the first time after the expiration of a moratorium imposed in 1998. Gerry Rivera, Palea president, reported that Jaime Bautista, Philippine Airlines (PAL) president and chief operating officer, received last week the CBA for the year 2008 to 2013.

“We expect management to respond to our proposal and negotiate in good faith,” Rivera said.

The PAL-Palea CBA was put on moratorium for 10 years in the wake of the bitter 1998 labor dispute that resulted in the strike of pilots and ground crew, and the closure of the national flag carrier.

A year after, the 69- year-old airline entered into corporate receivership with $2.12-billion total debts.

Rivera said that among the salient points of the CBA proposal is the updating and upgrading of the pay scale of employees.

“Too much wage distortion has been done to the pay scale so that there exists not only a severe contraction but to a certain extent an elimination of the quantitative differences between the job grades. We now aim to correct these distortions,” Rivera said.

He added that the proposal retains but revises the provision of the old CBA prohibiting contracting out of existing positions, jobs, divisions and departments presently occupied by present or future regular employees.

In addition, Rivera said the proposal improves on the old by explicitly barring outsourcing.

“This particular provision protects job security and union representation. The planned mass layoff of some 3,000 PAL workers is illegal because of this CBA provision,” Rivera said, adding that the CBA proposal contains provisions that enhance the retirement scheme.

PAL is concurrently negotiating a CBA with its flight crew.

The negotiations have, however, been deadlocked over disputes of retirement age and gender discrimination. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has assumed jurisdiction over the dispute.

The PAL-Palea row over the mass layoff has similarly been assumed by the Labor department.

Applicants for cabin crew
Meanwhile, PAL said the current labor dispute with its cabin crew failed to scare applicants to work in the Asia’s first airline carrier.
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Jose S.L. Uybarreta, PAL vice president for Human Resources Development, said for the first nine months of the year, PAL received close to 20,000 job applications.

”Our Talent Acquisition, Management and Retention Division accepts an average of 100 applicants a day. For August alone, a total of 3,520 applications were processed,” he said.

Of the total number of applicants, he said about half or 9,000 were seeking cabin crew positions.

“PAL recently added two brand new ‘Extended Range’ Boeing 777-300s to its fleet of wide-body aircraft. This led to the promotion of senior cabin crew and opened the door for the hiring and training of new ones,” he said.

Uybarreta said he believes PAL’s current labor problems with its cabin crew union have not deterred fresh graduates from applying with Asia’s first airline.

“PAL maintains a good and competitive track record when it comes to employee salaries and benefits. Hence, Fasap’s unfounded allegations of below-minimum wage pay and gender discrimination do not seem to hold water among aspiring crew members,” he said, referring to the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines.

”If PAL is discriminating or abusing its cabin crew, applicants should outright be disillusioned from entering PAL. But many real-life success stories of our flight attendants fuel dreams of starting a flying career with PAL,” Uybarreta added.