Negros group calls for strike vs ruling on PAL

Cebu Daily News First Posted 08:08:00 11/04/2010

Bacolod City — The Negros Labor Coalition called for a nationwide strike and civil disobedience to protest the recent decision of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz that upheld the planned outsourcing of services of the Philippine Airlines.

NLC convenor Wennie Sancho said Monday that the outsourcing of services would result in the termination of 2,600 PAL employees who belong to the Philippine Airlines Employees Association.

“This in effect is union busting and will deny the workers of their constitutional right to security of tenure. This is a death blow against free trade unionism in the Philippines,” Sancho added.

He said the decision was a dangerous precedent that would cause the demise of the trade union movement in the Philippines.

The NLC urged all workers to unite in opposing the decision of Baldoz and to stage a protest against the government for ignoring the plight of the workers by legalizing contractualization, Sancho said.

“This is unconstitutional and anti-labor and it would appear that the labor secretary is more inclined to protect the interest of management rather than the workers,” he said.

Sancho added that the Republic 6727 (Wage Rationalization Act) might as well be repealed because “it was violated by the government.”

But Baldoz, in a statement for the Department of Labor and Employment, emphasized that the 2,600 PAL employees were part of the company’s in-flight catering, airport services (cargo handling) and call center reservations operations, all identified as non-core activities of the airline in its 1998 Supplemental Rehabilitation Plan approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the 2,600 employees were guaranteed employment and hefty transition benefits that were “over and above the benefits granted in the original decision and even under existing laws,” Baldoz pointed out.

The terminated employees would be absorbed by their respective service providers and PAL would guarantee the payment of their salaries for a period of at least one year, from the time of their separation from employment, as the original decision provided, the DOLE statement said.