After arrears settled to gov’t:
PAL asked to pay debts to outsourced workers
With Philippine Airlines (PAL) settling
yesterday its arrears to the government amounting to some P6 billion, the the union
Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) called on the national flag
carrier to likewise pay its debt to its outsourced workers. PALEA is demanding
that PAL implement the settlement agreement forged in 2013 to end the
long-running dispute and reinstate some 600 outsourced workers.
Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice
chair of the militant Partido Manggagawa, said that “PALEA is calling on
President Duterte to ask Lucio Tan and PAL to likewise fulfill their obligation
to some 600 retrenched PAL workers who have yet to be reinstated as regular
workers according to the terms of a settlement agreement forged in 2013 to
resolve the outsourcing dispute. President Duterte is aware of this as it was
brought to his attention in a dialogue with labor groups at Malacanang last
February 27.”
President Rodrigo Duterte had assailed
Lucio Tan-owned PAL for failing to pay CAAP for its debts on the use of airport
facilities. Last October 4, PALEA held a picket at office of the Civil Aviation
Administration of the Philippines (CAAP) to ask Philippine Airlines (PAL) to
pay its debts to the government and its workers. In the picket, PALEA members held
placards that read “PAL singilin sa utang sa gobyerno. Panagutin din sa pagkakasala
sa obrero,” “Bayaran ang utang. Ibalik sa trabaho ang manggagawang tinanggal”
and “Reinstate the PALEA 600.”
PALEA is also calling on the Department
of Labor and Employment to release the findings of its inspection of PAL, its
sister company PAL Express and the 27 agencies contracted in their operations.
A similar inspection of telecom company PLDT led to an order to regularize
nearly 9,000 agency workers.
“We are confident that simlar to PLDT,
PAL and PAL Express will also be found gulity of illegal labor-only contracting
and thus be ordered to regularize its thousands of agency workers and reinstate
the PALEA 600,” Rivera argued.
Yesterday, various labor and church
groups, including PALEA and PM, met at the Arzobispado de Manila in Intramuros to
assess the ongoing campaign against contractualization and vowed to push the
administration of President Duterte to make good on its promise to end endo.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo reiterated the support of the
Catholic Church to the fight of workers for regular jobs, including the
reinstatement of the PALEA 600.
PALEA
November 4, 2017
