PAL union decries job contracting

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea) and the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) picketed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) office in Manila on Thursday to ask the agency to tighten regulations and plug loopholes that have allowed employers to massively supplant regular workers with contractual labor.

Gerry Rivera, Palea president and PM vice chairman, said that the management of PAL should cease from contracting out jobs, adding that they will go on strike if the flag carrier continues to do so.

“Our job is our life and if necessary we will strike to defend our livelihood for the sake of our families,” he added.

On Thursday, the Labor department held a mediation meeting between the representatives of Palea and PAL management. A previous mediation failed to settle differences between the two sides.

PAL’s ongoing labor dispute with its ground crew stems from the planned contracting out of jobs that will lead to the layoff of some 3,000 employees.

Workers in airport services, in-flight catering and ticketing reservations will be retrenched and then rehired as contractuals in service providers also owned by Lucio Tan.

Under such arrangement, the rehired workers will not enjoy job security and may be forced to work for a smaller pay.

Complex situation

PAL’s dispute with its ground crew union is compounded by the departure of some 25 pilots who opted to join foreign airlines that had offered them much higher pay.

“PAL is faced with a three-front war with its airline pilots, flight crew and ground personnel because of its drive to demolish job security, replace regular employees with contractual workers and bust the remaining unions in the company. We are asking the government of [President Benigno Aquino 3rd] through Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to review the policy on contractualization and strengthen protection for job security or else it faces a wave of labor unrest,” said Renato Magtubo, the PM chairman.

The mediation meeting on Thursday arose from Palea’s pending motion for reconsideration of former Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman’s “midnight decision” that affirmed PAL management’s prerogative to contract out the jobs of its ground crew.

“We welcome the preference of Secretary Baldoz to mediate the dispute on job contracting in PAL, unlike Lagman who unilaterally issued a ‘midnight decision’ favoring the management. But even as we negotiate in good faith, we have to be prepared for all eventualities including the necessity to strike if the planned layoff pushes through,” Magtubo said.

PAL President Jaime Bautista said that the primary issue at hand is whether the contracting out of jobs was illegal.

But he added that outsourcing is a valid exercise of management prerogative.

On Palea’s strike threat, Bautista said that whatever the union would do must be within the bounds of the law. –JOMAR CANLAS REPORTER, Manila Times