Labor orders PAL to reinstate eight pursers

EIGHT flight attendants won a reprieve Friday after the Labor Department stopped Philippine Airlines from retiring them once they reached the age of 55.

Labor Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac ordered the airline on Jan. 28 to stop implementing its retirement policy until the department had ruled on its dispute with its flight attendants’ union.

“We are glad that the Office of the [Labor] Secretary heeded [the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association’s] urgent call to stop PAL from worsening the labor tension between PAL and [the union],” group president Robert Anduiza said.

“[The airline’s] move to suddenly retire our members and the manner by which they carried it out, giving them only three days before being thrown out of their jobs[,] was really very provocative and cruel.”

Airline spokesman Cielo Villaluna said she would inform the Manila Standard of the carrier’s reaction once they received the Labor Department’s order.

On Jan. 13, the airline’s management notified the eight flight pursers of their retirement effective Jan. 16, and after a Makati court removed all the legal obstacles to their separation upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 55.

They were Yvette Grant, Vina Sanchez, Cora Mislang, Irma Bituin, Cristina Mendoza, Evangeline Bocobo, Mooning Noel and Maria Afable.

The airline said the court lifted its injunction on Jan. 4 after it had been convinced that whatever damages the flight attendants might have sustained “may be computed, taking into consideration the salaries and benefits that they will earn if they retire at the age of 60 and not 55.”

But the judge required the airline to post a P5-million bond for any damages the flight attendants might have sustained once the court later determined that it had not been entitled to the lifting of the injunction order. Eric B. Apolonio, Manila Standard Today