No date yet for PAL attendants' planned strike

Flight attendants employed by Philippine Airlines (PAL) have yet to decide whether or not they would push through with their their planned strike, three years after their labor agreement with the country's flag carrier expired. Plans to stage "a legal strike" will be presented to 1,600 members of the Flight Attendants’ and Stewards’ Association of the Philippines (FASAP), its president Roberto Anduiza said in a message dated July 22, 2010. However, officials have yet to announce a date for the FASAP membership meeting. Anduiza’s message was distributed among its members on Tuesday afternoon during a briefing at its offices across the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City. The briefing was attended by FASAP, together with union representatives of PAL pilots and employees. PAL is currently reeling from the resignation of 25 pilots, which has caused the cancellation of some 30 domestic flights since Saturday. Bad faith One of the reasons that FASAP cited for deciding to "escalate and consider a strike" was that the airline "has been bargaining in bad faith," said Anduiza’s message. "Despite numerous promises to submit its economic proposals during the preventive mediation hearings before the Department of Labor [and Employment], PAL has failed or refused to do so," Anduiza said in his message. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the airline and the FASAP expired in July 2007. PAL also supposedly "gave pay increases to management officers, pilots, and other ground personnel, except the flight attendants for the years 2007 and 2008," the same message said. Discrimination The group also alleged that the airline implemented "age and gender discrimination" policies, like the "no motherhood policy." Under the policy, a female flight attendant who gets pregnant "gets the same status as an employee suspended for theft," Anduiza told GMANews.TV after the briefing. The pregnant employee goes on leave without pay "starting on the third month, until she gives birth," FASAP said in a primer entitled Sexism and Gender Discrimination Against Flight Attendants. "During such time, she has to exhaust all her earned vacation leaves and accrued days-off," the primer added. The pregnancy leave without pay period, which normally lasts a year, is also deducted from the flight attendant’s years of service, affecting her retirement pay, Christmas bonus, and 13th month salary. Besides being unable to receive any salary or allowance, the pregnant employee is also disallowed from the monthly rice subsidy enjoyed by employees. Accrual of the employee’s travel benefits are also suspended, the primer said. FASAP officials also opposed PAL’s age discrimination policy, which requires both male and female flight attendants to retire at age 40. "Unreasonable" requirement The requirement is "unreasonable," Ricky Montecillo, FASAP’s Board Secretary told GMANews.TV in a separate interview. Under the requirement, flights attendants will be unable to secure housing loans or even build their own families "because they have limited shelf lives," Montecillo said. Meanwhile, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said that the compulsory retirement age provision "went through the process during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations undertaken in [November] 2000." "No one’s forced them to sign that provision," Villaluna told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Under that agreement, male and female flight attendants hired before November 1996 were required to retire at 60 and 55. Male and female flight attendants hired after 1996 are required to retire at 45 while those hired after 2000 should comply with the compulsory retirement age of 40. Moreover, Villaluna asked the FASAP to avoid "resorting to threats." "Management is open to peaceful dialog," she said. "[This kind of talk] scares our passengers." - KBK, GMANews.TV