At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff
At a congressional inquiry by the House of Representatives Labor
Committee yesterday, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA)
demanded that Philippine Airlines (PAL) recall the latest mass layoff and reinstatement
the 117 fired employees. PAL responded by announcing that the termination of
the affected workers is being delayed from November 9 to November 30, giving
them three more weeks of work.
“Since PAL has not conceded to our demand for the recall of the illegal
dismissals, PALEA’s notice of strike stays. So the work stoppage that will
impact PAL flights and operations may happen later this month,” stated Gerry
Rivera, PALEA president and a Partido Manggagawa bet for the party-list
elections.
PALEA did not push through with the planned strike during the undas
holidays in deference to conciliation proceedings called by the Department of
Labor and Employment (DOLE). Another conciliation meeting is scheduled on
November 10.
The congressional hearing was held in Davao City and presided by Rep.
Karlo Nogrles. In response to queries on the status of the duly elected PALEA
officers led by Rivera, DOLE Undersecretary Rebecca Chato testified in the hearing
that pending final resolution of the intra-union cases, the status quo remains
and thus current union officials are the legitimate representatives and
bargaining agents of PAL ground employees.
“USec Chato’s clarification of labor law and jurisprudence should be a
wakeup call to management to stop its unfair labor practice of disregarding
PALEA and talking directly to union members, such as what happened in the
termination of the 117 employees,” Rivera explained.
Representatives of factions that contested the leadership of PALEA also
attended the hearing. Leaders of these factions lost in the PALEA union
elections last February that was won by the slate of led by Rivera. Two
petitions were filed at the DOLE by the losing candidates after the elections.
Last month, some of the petitioners filed another case asking the DOLE to
disregard the pending notice of strike by PALEA.
Rivera averred that “All these PAL employees who are noisily attacking
PALEA’s fight against contractualization but who are suspiciously silent on the
mass firings by PAL are being exposed as lackeys of management.”
“Since 1998, more than 8,000 PAL regular employees and union members
have been fired and replaced by contractual workers who labor for longer hours
but are paid less in wages and benefits, and work without a voice in the
workplace. Thus even during times when PAL says that it is losing money,
airline service providers owned by Lucio Tan and his family remain extremely
profitable,” Rivera revealed.
Aside from the propriety of the latest round of retrenchments at the
national flag carrier, the congressional inquiry also discussed PAL’s refusal
to open collective bargaining negotiations for the last 17 years and to
implement the terms of the settlement agreement to end the outsourcing dispute
of 2011. PALEA had repeatedly asked PAL to start CBA talks and fulfill the re-employment
provision of the settlement deal to no avail.
November 5, 2015
PALEA
