PAL, flight attendants fail to resolve labor row

MANILA, Philippines – The management of Philippine Airlines and the PAL Flight Attendants and Stewards Association (FASAP) failed to break the deadlock with both sides unwilling to change their stance.

PAL said in a statement on Tuesday that it maintained its P80-million offer to the cabin crew union, saying the company cannot give more due to its current financial difficulties.

Management also insisted on limiting talks to the economic aspect of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to put closure to its 2005-2010 CBA with FASAP.

PAL said it wanted the early retirement issue to be discussed during the next CBA covering the years 2010 to 2015. It’s not until 2018, or eight years from now, when the early retirement provision will affect any cabin crew.

PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista, who was ill, was absent at the conciliation meeting at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB).

On the early retirement age issue, PAL lawyers said the company should not take the blame for a CBA provision that FASAP leaders approved.

“Officers of the cabin crew union signed the CBA containing the provision setting an early retirement age not only once but three times in the past. They were not forced. They signed it voluntarily,” PAL said in its statement.

FASAP, which has threatened to stage a strike to protest the early mandatory retirement age. The provision on the retirement of 55-year-old female attendants is part of a heavily contended policy prescribed in the PAL-FASAP 2000-2005 CBA.

PAL has 2 other sets of compulsory retirement policies. The other 2 are: flight attendants, both male and female, hired after November 22, 1996, are retired at age 45; and male and female flight attendants hired after November 22, 2000 are retired at age 40.

In a related development, partylist Akbayan on Tuesday picketed the PAL ticket office in Manila, calling on the public to boycott the airline company until its management has repudiated its unfair labor practices, as well as its sexist and discriminatory policies imposed against its workers, particularly to its female flight stewards.

“PAL would like to depict the current labor row as a dispute restricted to its management and workers. They are trying to insulate the issue from the public’s scrutiny. However, being the country’s flag carrier and by virtue of the fact that many of the workers’ issues are in reality the same issues confronted by the rest of the working population, it is necessary that we express our solidarity with the PAL employees. The public must get itself involved,” said Akbayan Vice President Marie Chris Cabreros. –abs-cbnNEWS.com