Manila Standard Today
December 11, 2010
by Jeremiah F. de Guzman
PHILIPPINE Airlines will fire and cancel the benefits of all ground employees who will strike because that action would be illegal, company president Jaime Bautista said Friday.
The Labor Department had already taken up and decided on the issue raised by the workers against the airline, Bautista said.
“We don’t think there will be a strike because if they do so, it is an illegal strike,” he said.
“They can be terminated and their benefits will be lost.
But the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association said the planned strike was over a separate complaint of union busting by the management, and that 75 percent of the votes cast by the union’s 2,700 members Wednesday showed that 86 percent favored a strike.
“That dispute has not been resolved or assumed,” union president Gerardo Rivera said.
“There is nothing more to negotiate that has already been decided by the Labor Department. The decision is very costly for us and very good for the union.”
Bautista said the carrier no longer was open to negotiations with the ground workers. The airline was ready for any strike.
“We have already made arrangements with several service providers to help us if a strike takes place,” he said.
“We don’t really need these employees because we can get them from the service providers.”
Meanwhile, Bautista said Philippine Airlines and the Board of Airline Regulators comprising foreign airlines will pay airport Customs staff P250,000 each in overtime covering five months.
PAL will pay P125,000 and the foreign airlines the balance, he said.
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said a check was being prepared, and that the employees could be paid by Monday.
“We got a breakthrough in our discussions with PAL,” Alvarez said.
“There has been a positive development. PAL has already prepared the check that will be released today or Monday morning at the latest.”
The airport staff are owed 11 months more, and that amount will be discussed to determine exactly how much is due them. With Eric B. Apolonio
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