PAL workers guaranteed employment, benefits — DoLE By Mina Diaz and Gerry Baldo 11/02/2010

PAL workers guaranteed employment, benefits — DoLE

By Mina Diaz and Gerry Baldo 11/02/2010

With the House committee on labor threatening to call for a hearing on the Department of Labor and Employment’s decision to lay off some 2,600 Philippine Airlines employees, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz yesterday said that none of the 2,600 affected PAL employees will be left jobless, following the release of its decision on the June 28, 2010 motion for reconsideration of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea) of the earlier decision of former DoLE acting Secretary Romeo Lagman upholding the planned outsourcing of services and consequent severance from employment of the said employees.

The DoLE decision emphasized that the 2,600 PAL employees who are part of its in-flight
catering, airport services (cargo handling), and call center reservations operations, all identified as non-core activities of the airline in its 1998 Supplemental Rehabilitation Plan approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, are all guaranteed with employment and hefty transition benefits.

According to the decision, in declaring valid the termination of the covered rank-and-file employees, it established two parameters under the CBA: (1) the exercise of the management prerogative was done in a just, reasonable, humane, and lawful manner; and (2) the observance of the 45-day consultation period, required in the CBA, before implementing the reorganization..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101102hed4.html