PAL wants pirated pilots to pay back P14m each

PHILIPPINE Airlines will be suing the remaining 10 pilots who resigned abruptly despite reports they have left the country to work for foreign carriers, an official said over the weekend.

The flag carrier was completing documentation to take legal action against the 10, who were not included in the first batch of civil cases that it filed last week, company president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista said.

The pilots left without notice, and reportedly for higher-paying jobs in Hong Kong, Vietnam and the Middle East, prompting Philippine Airlines to cancel more than 20 flights in August.

“We will still sue them for breach of contract,” Bautista said.

“Even if they are already abroad, they will still go back to the Philippines.”

Bautista said PAL was seeking compensation from the pilots to cover the cost of training them, which amounted to about P14 million over 10 years.

The respondents in the first lawsuit were captains Allan Avellanosa, John Joseph de Guzman, Bienvenido Gorospe, Christopher Abella, Alvin Panganiban, Charles Pastrana, Sunny Sim and Jacques Louis Zialcita, and first officers Gerald Escuril, Regin Lorenzo, Robert Solis, Emmanuel de Lima, Joevan Magbanua, Van Vincent Panganiban, Erwin Sibayan, and Darwin Sy.

The airline accuses the pilots, who used to operate its fleet of Airbus 320s, of violating a provision in their contract to give the company a 180-day notice before leaving for another job, as well as an agreement requiring them to work for five years to cover the cost of their training.

Meanwhile, Bautista said the airline was continuing to negotiate with the members of its flight attendants and stewards’ union despite their filing of a notice of strike with the Labor Department on Sept. 9.

“There is nothing to worry about,” he said. The airline hoped that the problem would be resolved as the lines of communication were still open.

Bautista said the labor problems and the booking cancellations resulting from the Aug. 23 hostage-taking in Manila, in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed, would hurt the airline’s bottom line.

On Sunday, the Flight Attendants’ and Stewards Association of the Philippines criticized the management for refusing to budge on the mandatory retirement age of 40 for female cabin crew.

The union said a seven-hour meeting on Sept. 15 brought no results, and that another meeting on Sept. 17 also ended in a deadlock.

“PAL has not moved one inch. Not one day over 40 years old and not one peso over its last P80-million lump-sum offer to settle the past three year CBA [collective bargaining agreement] period. So much for being reasonable,” the union said on its Web site.

“The Department of Labor officials who are trying their very best to mediate the dispute must have been very disappointed with PAL management.” –Jeremiah F. de Guzman, Manila Standard Today