PALEA calls on new PAL management to drop criminal charges vs. members

Press Statement

September 11, 2012

PALEA

We call on the new management of Philippine Airlines headed by CEO Ramon S. Ang of the San Miguel Corp. group to facilitate the resolution of the pending labor dispute at the flag carrier by, among others, dropping the trumped up charges our members which were filed under the old company management of Jaime Bautista.

These criminal charges are an irritant to settling the labor row as they were intended to cajole and coerce PALEA members to avail of the outsourcing separation package and thereby surrender the fight for regular jobs.

The trumped up charges are inconsistent with the statement of Mr. Ramon Ang in the PAL annual stockholders meeting that the new management proposes a just and humane conclusion to the long-running labor row.

Further we call on the courts and the government to respect labor rights and labor laws. As enunciated in under DOJ Ministry Circular No. 15 (Series of 1982) and Department of Labor and Employment Department (DOLE) Order No. 40-G-03 (Series of 2010), no criminal information can be filed against workers without the required clearance from the DOLE. Absent such clearance, the courts are mandated to dismiss the charges outright. Such a policy, started after the formal lifting of martial law, aims to resolve rather than aggravate labor disputes and regulate the proclivity of capitalists to engage in harassment suits against workers.

We condemn Pasay Assistant City Prosecutor Orlando Mariano and Judge Bibiano Colasito of the Pasay MTC Branch 44 for finding probable cause and ordering the issuance of arrest warrants against 39 PALEA members, two of whom are women. These officers of the court not only defied labor statutes but infringed on our members right to due process, and thus deserve to face administrative charges.

Further we denounce PAL lawyer Atty. Santiago “Sonny” Quial for his legal machinations. Quial plans to run for city councilor if not district representative in the coming elections. As many PALEA members are Pasay voters, we will make sure that a law breaker does not become a law maker.

Finally we thank our brothers and sisters in the labor movement both here and abroad for their solidarity. As part of this solidarity, a global day of action for PALEA and other airline workers will be held on September 27, anniversary of the protest against outsourcing at PAL. Aside from rallies in Manila and Cebu, actions are scheduled in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, Vancouver and Toronto in Canada, Istanbul in Turkey, Mumbai in India, Lahore in Pakistan and San Francisco in the USA.

PAL is a Scrooge—international labor rights group

Press Release

December 21, 2011

A Washington DC-based international labor rights watchdog has included Philippine Airlines (PAL) in its list of worst companies for the year. PAL joins giant companies Dole, Wal-Mart and Hershey in the “Scrooge list” of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) for the “use of intimidation and sometimes violence, in the U.S. and abroad, to violate workers’ internationally recognized right to organize.”

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) welcomed PAL’s description as a Scrooge “since Lucio Tan stole Christmas from some 2,400 employees and their families.” Renato Magtubo, PM chair, said that “PAL has been naughty not nice to its workers so Santa did not grant its wish of a profitable year.” PAL has announced that it will end the year with losses to due its failed outsourcing plan and high fuel prices.

In its report, ILRF explained that “Some of this year’s Scrooges, such as Dole and Wal-Mart, are repeat offenders—giant corporations that refuse to uphold their responsibility to their direct employees and to workers in their supply chains. Hershey receives Scrooge status for the first time—an accolade long overdue—as the chapter exposes an ongoing pattern of the company’s neglect of workers’ rights and refusal to be more accountable to workers in its supply chain. The case of Philippine Airlines illustrates an increasingly common trend among corporations, the flexibilization of work, and how when workers protest against outsourcing, they are locked-out and fired.”

“This holiday season corporate greed at PAL is shining through,” the ILRF report asserted. The group is supporting PALEA by calling on the public to boycott PAL and its sister low-cost carrier Air Philippines until the workers are reinstated to their regular jobs.

“The right to freedom of association is typically violated through the use of bullying tactics and the spread of anti-union propaganda but this year’s Scrooges have taken violating workers’ rights to new lows. As we celebrate the holiday season, consumers and labor advocates can support workers by telling these Scrooge companies that they need to respect workers rights,” said Judy Gearhart, ILRF Executive Director.

Magtubo declared that “The Philippines is not on the right track but off course as far as labor rights is concerned.” The ILRF Scrooge list follows on the heels of a critical report issued last month by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) regarding the observance of core labor standards in the Philippines which also mentions the case of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) as substantiation. The global union body said that “In view of restrictions on the trade union rights of workers, discrimination, child labour, and forced labour, determined measures are needed to comply with the commitments” of the Philippines to international treaties.

The ILRF report Working for Scrooge is can be viewed online athttp://www.laborrights.org/scrooges2011. The ITUC report is posted at is posted athttp://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/wto_review.pdf.