Fire-at-will policy

In a decision dated Aug. 11, the Office of the President (OP) denied the motion for reconsideration of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea). So, last Aug. 5 Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced the mass layoff of more than 2,600 employees and their downgrade as contractual workers in service providers. Yet PAL’s implementation of the OP ruling is premature since it is not executory, pending final judicial resolution; Palea has filed a petition with the Court of Appeals.

The OP decision has exposed P-Noy’s fire-all-you-can policy. Even if a company is earning millions of dollars or billions of pesos, it can retrench more than half of its workforce. This is nothing but a second-rate, trying-hard copycat of American fire-at-will employment relations, where giant profitable companies are allowed to lay off thousands.

PAL actually earned more than $72.5 million in net income from April 2010 to March 2011 since it paid $46.5 million in debts last June 2010. Meaning PAL earned some P5 billion in one year thanks to the blood, sweat and tears of its employees.

PAL’s ground crew have sacrificed for 13 years already their right to bargain collectively and now that the flag carrier is financially healthy, it will reward them with mass termination. Since 1998, the collective bargaining agreement has been suspended and as a consequence, for example, the last wage hike for PAL’s ground crew was in 2008.

Outsourcing should be part of bilateral talks between PAL and Palea instead of being unilaterally imposed on its employees. This is the solution to the two-year long labor row.

Instead of preparing to break any picket line and calling on Palea not to strike—a right guaranteed by law and a means of defense for workers—the government must exert moral suasion on PAL to subject the outsourcing plan to collective bargaining negotiations.

As sisters and brothers in the workers movement, we steadfastly support Palea. Palea is not just fighting for the welfare of PAL employees. They are also struggling for the future of all Filipino workers. There is no dignity and justice in a contractual job for the Filipino worker. As of the moment, Palea is the last line of defense against contractualization.

—JUDY ANN MIRANDA,

secretary general,

Partido ng Manggagawa