Why declare redundancy in the first place?
July 31, 2010
At least a dozen pilots walked out from office this week and left the company without notice grounding 11 flights out of Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport Saturday.
PAL spokesman Jonathan Gesmundo said the problem came as a surprise to them as some of their pilots have applied for work in other airlines without the courtesy of informing management.
"In the past few days, pilots had not been reporting for duty. This has caused problems for us," Gesmundo said in a radio interview.
Philippine Airlines had to cancel at least five flights, one bound for Hong Kong, the others to domestic destinations in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Iloilo after several of its Airbus A320 abandoned the company for jobs abroad.
"The indiscriminate resignation of PAL's A320 pilots for flying jobs abroad whose salaries PAL is unable to match, is in violation of their contracts with PAL as well pertinent government regulations that require resigning pilots to give PAL six months prior notice to be able to train their replacements," the statement read.
The company said it will file appropriate charges soon against pilots who chose not to report for work immediately after submitting their resignation letters. The indebted flag carrier has said it would lay off some of its 8,000-strong work force because of financial losses in the third straight year.
But to the PAL pilots who still works with the company, nothing is surprising after all. In fact, its a carefully crafted scheme with the objective of screwing the pilots benefit more.
An ALPAP spokesman who does not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, considering he still works with PAL however said that the resigned pilots themselves were declared reduntant by the Company earlier this year prompting them to seek employment elsewhere, and blamed the airline itself for the mess the management themselves created.
"They were declared redundant by PAL. What do you expect? Wait for the axe to fall onto your head?" says the spokeman.
"They were offered work assignments at Air Philippines but with different terms so they declined. The problem there is that they won't be having the same benefits provided by PAL so they decided to apply outside the country instead." the spokesman said.
"Of course we love the company. But who would fight for it when your back is pushed against the wall? Who would want to work in a company where your security of tenure is not guaranteed? At the end of the day, you still think about the future of your family." the spokesman adds.
8 more flights were cancelled Sunday despite the action of the government for intervention.
ReplyDeletePAL cancelled its flights from Manila to Cagayan, Cebu, Bacolod and Iloilo.
PAL’s PR 181, which should have departed Manila at 4:45 a.m. bound for Cagayan and its return flight PR 182 at 8:15 a.m. was shelved, as well as PR 847 which was scheduled to leave the capital at 7:30 a.m. Sunday for Cebu. Its return flight PR 848 slated to fly out of the Queen city of the south at 10:55 a.m. was likewise put off.
Also, PAL’s trips to Bacolod involving PR 133 (Manila-Bacolod) and PR 134 (Bacolod-Manila), which were to leave their points of origin at 8:40 a.m. and 11:35 a.m., respectively, have been cancelled as well.
Lastly, the flag-carrier’s flights to Iloilo – PR 147 bound for Iloilo at 6:35 p.m. and the return flight PR 148 at 9:30 p.m – were likewise scrapped.
On Monday, four more domestic flights were cancelled.
PAL cancelled flights (PR 147) from Manila to Iloilo and the incoming flight (PR 148) from Iloilo to Manila, which were scheduled to leave their points of origin at around 6:35 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively.
Trips from Manila to Bacolod and Bacolod to Manila—PR 135 and PR 136— were likewise cancelled.
There were a total of 35 cancelled flights from Saturday as a result of the pilot exodus.