Industrial Relations

MANILA, Philippines – This should serve as a warning to all employers. The Supreme Court has sentenced the president of a corporation from 4 to 20 years in prison for failing to remit P400,000 worth in contributions of his employees to the Social Security System.

PHILIPPINE Airlines’ flight attendants, rejecting the carrier’s P80-million pay package, said Monday they will strike within the next few days to protest its alleged unfair labor practices and to air their grievances against it.

A NEW offer from management failed to break the impasse at Philippine Airlines (PAL) after the flag-carrier’s flight attendants and stewards rejected the proposed settlement. PAL on Monday offered a “one-time” P80-million package to its 1,600 flight attendants and stewards to settle a labor dispute.

A disagreement regarding the compulsory retirement age of its flight attendants has prevented Philippine Airlines (PAL) and a flight attendants’ union from approving a new labor agreement.

PHILIPPINE Airlines has lost a test case against a pilot for breaching contract obligations, the same charge it is considering against 25 pilots who walked off their jobs last week without giving notice.

MANILA, Philippines—After it lost several of its pilots whose resignations have resulted in delayed or cancelled flights, trouble is brewing at the Philippine Airlines (PAL) anew after its employees threatened to go on strike if management pushes through with its outsourcing scheme.

MANILA, Philippines—Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) on Monday said that almost 70 percent of its farm workers (7,302 out of 10,502) have availed of a stock distribution option as a “quick remedy” to the long-drawn-out legal battle over the controversial land.

Let’s get one thing straight. Re-nationalizing Philippine Airlines (PAL) is not the way out of its troubles. Not now. Maybe never. After allowing its privatization after decades of running and, yes, subsidizing it to no avail, the government cannot go back now and pour more hard-earned money after bad. The solution to PAL’s current travails…

Philippine Airlines (PAL) said that it has reduced flight frequencies to its several domestic destinations amid the exodus of its pilots and the onset of the so-called lean season in local travel. In a statement over the weekend, PAL said that it had submitted to the Civil Aeronautics Board a list of routes with reduced…

MANILA, Philippines—The compromise agreement signed yesterday between the owners and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) obliges HLI to allocate P150 million in financial assistance to the farmer-beneficiaries, to be distributed based on the amount of shares they currently own. Each share is worth P1.27.

President Aquino yesterday welcomed the compromise agreement between the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) management and its farmers that has been reportedly signed by the parties concerned notwithstanding the lingering contentions of other farm worker beneficiaries.

MANILA, Philippines – The farmers and owners of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) yesterday ended their decades-long dispute by signing an agreement that will allow the farmers to own a patch of the estate or continue as stockholders of the sugar firm.

LOS ANGELES – A Filipino newspaper is in trouble after the US Labor Department reportedly found out that it violated many rules when it hired workers from the Philippines.

Brussels, 6 January 2010 (ITUC OnLine): A decision taken by the ITUC’s Israeli affiliate Histadrut to allow migrant workers membership is a significant step towards ensuring an end to exploitation and helping ensure full respect for their rights at work.  The December 28 decision by the national trade union centre removes an anomaly whereby only…

FROM THE initial stories that came out in the press, one got the impression that the pilots who had left PAL were the bad guys. The stories, sourced from PAL management, went that the pilots were earning oodles of money (by local standards anyway—P500,000 a month was the figure being given for a senior pilot).…

IN a bid to stop “gender-based discrimination,” a Makati court has ordered Philippine Airlines to stop implementing an early retirement policy that supposedly discriminates against flight stewardesses who were hired before 1996.

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) will find its hands full next week as it deals with two pending labor disputes with the unions of flight attendants and ground crew.

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) has moved to stem the further resignation of pilots with a pledge that none of its remaining pilots would be moved to PAL sister firm Air Philippines, a budget airline.

THE MAKATI Regional Trial Court (RTC) has stopped Philippine Airlines (PAL) from implementing an early retirement policy that allegedly discriminates against female attendants.

ON A flight to Vancouver from Newark, New Jersey many years back – it was during those earlier tries by Philippine Airlines to fly that route – I was chatting with the flight attendant and telling her about how  I was going to visit my Aunt and Uncle who was living in Oak Harbor, Washington.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the Palace’s acknowledgement of Chief Justice Corona’s appointment by the previous Arroyo administration, her other last minute appointees to the judiciary may not be as lucky.

MANILA, Philippines – The government yesterday decided to pull out from mediation talks between flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and its pilots, declaring that “the worst is over.”

Despite a labor dispute that threatens to erupt into a crippling strike, the country’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will still proceed with plans to close down three departments and outsource “non-core” positions, a spokesperson said.

Seven workers of the Government Service Insurance System have been cleared of administrative charges for initiating a “red-shirt” protest within the premises of the agency five years ago.

PHILIPPINE Airlines’ pilots are seeking a 10-percent increase in their pay to make them stop looking for better-paying jobs abroad, the head of a pilots’ union said Wednesday.

PRESIDENT Aquino’s family has reached a settlement under which farmers in its Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) will be given the option to retain shares of stock in the corporation or secure parcels of land from a third of the 6,500 hectare plantation up for distribution, an HLI source said.

About 30 people were hurt Wednesday when armed men allegedly fired shots to disperse a group of protesting farmers in a ranch in Bukidnon, an official of a volunteer group assisting the farmers said.

The government conceded yesterday problems deeper than what has been initially perceived may prolong the ongoing dispute between the management of flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and 25 of its resigned pilots as Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the arbitration efforts of the government are not expected to produce results within the week.

MANILA, Philippines – Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus has ordered his agency’s officials to continue mediation meetings between the management of Philippine  Airlines and the pilots who left the flag-carrier, a spokesman said.

Philippine Airlines is no stranger to labor disputes and pilot exodus. But it seems the Aquino administration is. The current high-profile issue of pilots leaving for greener pastures abroad is actually old news.