PAL: No turning back on outsourcing program

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) said yesterday there’s no turning back on the airline’s outsourcing program as it turned down its former employees’ offer to return to work in exchange for keeping them in their old posts.

PAL president Jaime Bautista said the flag carrier, with its new service providers and corps of volunteers, is determined to see the airline through the difficult transition phase.

“PAL is slowly returning to normalcy, thanks to the selfless dedication of our admin volunteers and the help of our service providers,” Bautista said.

He assured PAL passengers that from the current 70 percent, the airline’s flights will be back to pre-strike levels in the next few weeks.

“As of midnight Oct. 1, workers in our catering, ground handling and call center reservations units have ceased to be PAL employees. Hence, they have no right to demand or tell the airline how to run its business,” he stressed.

He added that Gerry Rivera and Bong Palad have also ceased to be PAL employees and are, therefore, no longer recognized by PAL as leaders of the PAL Employees Association (Palea). “They have no authority to negotiate for and in behalf of PAL workers.”

Bautista said PAL management has other reasons why it won’t recall its former workers: the outsourcing is now in full swing and service providers have taken over the functions of the three departments; anyone who wishes to render work must apply with these providers; PAL will only take back its former workers if there is a court order mandating it to do so; so far, there is none; former PAL workers have caused damage to PAL’s equipment during their Sept. 27 wildcat strike. There’s no guarantee they won’t do that again; and mixing former PAL workers with volunteers and service providers poses grave risk to the men and women who have worked so hard to keep the airline flying. It would be most unfair to expose them to possible harassment and physical harm.

Bautista said its service providers are doing their best to hire skilled workers to fill part of the vacuum left by its former personnel.

“We must understand that they were required by DoLE (Department of Labor and Employment) and Malacañang to absorb all former PAL employees. Now that these workers have shown that they’re not interested, the service providers are working double-time to recruit the people they need,” he said. –Daily Tribune