Labor upholds PAL, finds no unfair practice

The Labor Department has upheld Philippine Airlines over its refusal to start collective bargaining negotiations with the union.

The National Labor Relations Commission found last Sept. 29 that the flag carrier was not guilty of unfair labor practice as alleged by PAL Employees’ Association.

NLRC Presiding Commissioner Raul Aquino said the outsourcing issue must be resolved apart from the CBA dispute and not hamper negotiations.

The union’s stand to include outsourcing in the labor case and its “uncompromising attitude” itself caused the breakdown of talks, NLRC said.

PAL spokesman Cielo Villaluna said in a phone interview that 37 more schedules were cancelled on Tuesday amid the service providers’ lack of manpower to serve passengers for 11 international and 26 domestic flights.

But 84 flights—48 international and 36 domestic–were operational on Tuesday.

According to Villaluna, 20 domestic flights were served in Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal 3 where PAL’s sister company AirPhil Express assisted ground-handling and management volunteers in the check-in counters.

The rest of the flights remained in NAIA 2.

“We expect major improvements towards the end of October. By that time, we believe that the service providers would have completed their workforce requirement,” she said.

“Right now, a little over 30 percent of PAL employees affected by the outsourcing have signed in with service providers. Those who wished to cross over can still apply but their applications will be treated similar to external applicants.”

The outsourcing, the carrier said, is a move to make the Lucio Tan-owned airline attractive to investors while streamlining operations being standard practice among airlines, is crucial to PAL’s long-term survival. –Jeremiah F. de Guzman with Eric B. Apolonio, Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today