MANILA, July 30, 2010— A Catholic bishop has asked President Benigno Aquino III to intervene personally in a dispute over plans by the country’s flag carrier to restructure program that could affect thousands of workers.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo has sought Aquino’s “immediate intervention” in the Philippine Airlines (PAL) labor dispute and “prove his sincerity” for the ordinary Filipinos.
“We ask the President to resolve this issue… especially for new Labor Secretary (Rosalinda) Valdoz to look into the matter,” he said.
Pabillo also heads the National Secretariat for Social Action- Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
The Department of Labor and Employment last June has allowed the airline management to outsource its critical operations, resulting in the possible mass layoff of some 3,500 employees of its 7,500-member workforce.
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association criticized the decision, which former Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman saw as a valid exercise of management prerogative.
The bishop, however, said these actions infringe provisions against labor contracting and on-job security contained within the company’s collective bargaining agreement(CBA).
“There are existing policies against labor contracting even within the airline company so it’s unbelievable that the DOLE came out with such ruling,” he said.
Pabillo urged Valdoz to review the decision and decide based on what is “moral” and “legally right” and not according to pressure by some big and influential businessmen.
He added that labor dispute is a “test case” on whether the Aquino administration will favor the ordinary laborers facing risk of losing their jobs.
Philippine Airlines, the country’s largest airline company, is part of a group of companies owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan.
An international labor group, which represents more than 4.6 million transport workers in 759 unions from 155 countries, including 269 aviation unions, earlier also sought the help of Aquino to resolve the labor dispute.
According to the London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the PAL spin off is a union-busting move, since these employees are all union members.
While ITF general secretary David Cockroft affirms that the aviation industry has been hardly hit by the economic crisis, this should not be used as ground to attack the rights of workers.
“ITF affiliates are clear that aviation workers are not responsible for the crisis but have borne a disproportionate burden of its cost,” Cockroft said. (Roy Lagarde/CBCPNews)
