Noynoy says pilots in PAL row may be liable

EIGHT MORE FLIGHTS CANCELLED

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) yesterday said it rejected the resignation of more than two dozens of its pilots and gave them seven days to return to work or face court charges as President Aquino said his government would intervene in the labor dispute which had caused flight cancellations.

Aquino added labor officials would study whether the pilots had breached their contracts.

“If this was not warranted, then they lay themselves also open to appropriate charges,” Aquino said.

The Association of Airline Pilots of the Philippines, which represents the PAL pilots, could not be reached immediately for comment.

In a statement, PAL said the resignation of more than two dozen pilots is illegal and violative of their existing contracts.

PAL cancelled another eight flights yesterday after calling off 11 international and domestic flights the other day when the crisis within the airline as a result of pilot shortage. PAL said most of the affected passengers in the cancelled flights were accommodated in merged or succeeding flights.

“PAL will make sure that all passengers are attended to,” the airline said as it assured the public that it hopes to get schedules back to normal within a week.

The eight cancelled flights yesterday included the Manila-Cagayan-Manila (PR181/182); Manila-Bacolod-Manila (PR133/134); Manila-Iloilo-Manila (PR147/148); and Manila-Cebu-Manila (PR847/848). Meanwhile, a Manila-Iloilo-Manila flight (PR145/146) that usually departs Manila at 4:20 pm but was rescheduled to 6:30 pm.

“PAL doesn’t want to get in the way of its pilots’ dream of landing better paying jobs abroad, but they have contractual obligations with the company and a moral responsibility to thousands of passengers,” PAL stressed.

Aquino said ministers from the departments of justice, transportation, labor and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. would meet separately with airline executives and representatives from the pilots’ union today to resolve the row.

“Hopefully we will be able to come up with a resolution so that the riding public is not inconvenienced and the economy does not suffer because of what is an inter-company dispute,” Aquino told reporters.

PAL said 13 captains and 12 first officers flying its Airbus A319s and A320s that form the backbone of its fleet had quit.

“They left without giving PAL ample time to train replacements,” the airline said. “Some of them even owe PAL millions of pesos for the cost of training (them).”

PAL apologised to the public for the inconvenience, but said the resignations were unforeseen.

“Many of them simply did not show up for work and just handed in their resignation letters,” PAL said.

It said most of those who quit had been poached by foreign airlines it did not name, at salaries three times those offered by PAL.

Most of the resigned pilots were reportedly ‘pirated’ by other carriers in the Asian region including the Middle East where the pay is allegedly two or three times their current salaries, according to PAL.

“By Philippine standards, an Airbus A320 pilot’s pay at PAL is considered ‘high’. But it’s still no match to the offer of foreign carriers. Our problem is, our competitors abroad seem to prefer PAL pilots because they were highly-trained by PAL and renowned for their flying skills,” PAL added.

Considered “Mission Critical Skills”, pilots and aircraft mechanics are required by government regulations to give their local employers at least 180 days or six months to find suitable replacements before taking another job abroad.

Meantime, PAL said it is in talks with various government agencies like the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to avert the loss of more pilots to ‘poachers” abroad.

The President reminded PAL and the pilots of their obligations to the flying public.

“PAL, for instance, has obligations when they secured the franchise to operate this public conveyance. The pilots also have obligations. This is of course being studied,” he said.

The President, meanwhile, seriously took note of the disruption caused to “our tourist and to other aspects of the economy that would need their services.”

PAL earlier said that a local pilot only received a salary of $2,000 to $3,000 compared to the $8,000 to $12,000 a month that foreign airlines offer.

The airline firm also intensified the training of more pilots to fill the gap.

A total of 120 pilots from all local airlines left the country since year 2000.

The country has more than 700 pilots, 450 of whom work for PAL.

To entice pilots to stay in the company, PAL has increased retirements benefits by 50 percent for pilots approaching the age of 60 to 33 1/2 days for every year of service from 22 1/2 days in 2006.

Four years ago, representatives of Air Philippines, Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, Asian Spirit and various maintenance, rehabilitation and overhaul (MRO) facilities operators submitted a proposal to impose a three to five-year ban on the foreign deployment of skilled airline personnel.

The airline’s flight attendants announced a plan to hold a strike after management’s failure to raise their salary for more than three years and its new policy lowering the compulsory retirement age

In April, PAL decided to let go of at least 3,000 employees with the spin-off of its three core businesses.

PAL said it was forced to implement the restructuring plan because of the global recession, high fuel prices, the unabated liberalization of the commercial aviation industry, and the recent blacklisting of Philippine carriers by the European Union. –Marie A. Surbano, Daily Tribune