Aquino warns PAL strikers govt will allow open skies

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday the government might open the airline market to more competition if the workers in Philippine Airlines struck and crippled the nation’s largest carrier.

“They will hasten the opening of our skies if they disrupt a very necessary service to the country,” Mr. Aquino said of the employees who have threatened to strike over pay and other grievances.

He would have to side with the riding public in the ongoing dispute at the flag carrier.

“Having either a total open-skies policy or a partial open-skies policy, which was done somewhere in the ‘90s, is already being studied,” Mr. Aquino said, adding some foreign airlines could be asked to serve PAL’s routes if a strike crippled its operations.

In 1998 the government asked Cathay Pacific to take over some of Philippine Airlines’ routes after some 600 of its pilots struck.

“If you fail to live up to your obligations, the government will be forced to adopt a policy that will side with the riding public,” Mr. Aquino said.

He urged the carrier’s management and labor groups to think of the future as they sought to end their dispute.

The airline’s flight attendants and stewards pulled out of talks Tuesday over its refusal to take up their objections to the mandatory retirement age of 40 for women. They also threatened to join the ground crew who have already filed a notice of strike with the Labor Department.

Officials of the cabin crew union, representing about 1,600 flight attendants and stewards, rejected a management call Wednesday to reconsider its offer of P80 million to close collective bargaining talks.

The union wants a 7-percent pay increase, which they value at P260 million, and an increase in the women’s retirement age to 60, the same for men.

“PAL misses the point,” said Bob Anduiza, president of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines.

“The 40-year-old mandatory retirement age is unreasonable and unjustified … It is not about money; it is about age and gender discrimination.

“PAL cannot even explain to the public why it insists on retiring flight attendants at such an early age. PAL is unfairly using this issue as a leverage and a bargaining chip to get difficult work-rule changes from the flight attendants and make them work for less pay.”

Anduiza said the airline’s policy on pregnancy and maternity leave was not only discriminatory but could also be unlawful.

“PAL’s pregnancy policy for flight attendants is punitive,” he said.

“Flight attendants who get pregnant are placed on prolonged leave without pay and this period is deducted from their years of service. It is the same treatment imposed on employees who are penalized with suspension.”

The airline was also deducting the mandatory maternity leave of 60 days from a flight attendant’s years of service, Anduiza said.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the law required a lengthy process before workers could strike. A majority of the union’s members must also approve the strike through a secret ballot.

“There is a 30-day cooling-off period after the filing of a notice of strike,” she said, to give the department time to mediate.

Some non-union workers who oppose the strike have appealed to the Labor Department to step into the dispute.

“We’re concerned that our anti-strike sentiments will not be heard,” said Eugene Reyes, an employee assigned to the departure check-in counter at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

“Our main concern is our livelihood and the future of our children. We hope Secretary Baldoz will protect our rights.”

PAL has 7,590 regular employees, including 450 pilots and 1,650 cabin crew. More than 3,000 workers are non-union members. With Joyce Pangco Pañares, Vito Barcelo and Eric Apolonio, Manila Standard Today