PAL says no disruption of flights -BI

Posted on 03:21 PM, December 10, 2010
Business World

LUCIO C. Tan-led Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday assured passengers PAL flights will continue to operate based on published schedules.

In a statement, PAL said “pronouncements made by [officials of the] PAL Employees Association (PALEA) that they will stage a strike during the holidays reveal their intention to sow panic and anxiety [among] thousands of PAL passengers who have firmed up travel plans to spend Christmas with their loved ones.”

As part of contingency measures PAL said it will:
•    engage professional service providers, including inflight catering companies, to augment workers not joining the strike;
•    deploy all available manpower, including supervisors and managers who are more than capable of manning critical frontline posts; and
•    endorse affected passengers to sister airline AirPhilexpress as well as 134 international airline partners.
PAL said employees who participated in a recent PALEA strike vote are ground workers mostly assigned to the ground-handling, catering and call center offices.

“While their jobs are important, these workers play support to flight operations. They are not directly engaged in flying or maintaining the aircraft. The pilots, cabin crew and mechanics/maintenance workers of Lufthansa Technik Philippines are not part of the planned work stoppage,” the flag carrier said.

PALEA is claiming that PAL has been engaging in “individual bargaining” and union-busting amid plans to outsource ground-handling, catering, and call center services. In April, PALEA was prevented from going on strike in protest of the outsourcing plan as the Labor secretary assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute on the ground of national interest.

PAL is questioning this week’s recent strike vote, saying PALEA’s complaints have been consolidated into the case assumed by the Labor department.