PAL flight crew union fears ‘slower’ cabin service

Lack of flight attendants has reportedly caused slower cabin service, affecting Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) regular and business class passengers, a group claimed. Since PAL decided to cut the number of crewmembers per flight in July this year, cabin service has become "slower," members of the Flight Attendants’ and Stewards’ Association of the Philippines (FASAP) told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. Moreover, the 1,600-strong FASAP claims that the airline is not hiring enough flight attendants, leading to a shortage of 200 crewmembers, Ricky Montecillo, the group’s Board Secretary told GMANews.TV in a text message. Although passenger complaints remain anecdotal, its members have nevertheless strived to provide quality service "despite working more for less pay," the group said in a statement distributed on Tuesday. Flight attendants "still give their best," Monet Muñoz, a FASAP member, told GMANews.TV in an interview at the group’s Pasay City office. A Boeing 747-400 aircraft, used for long haul flights, used to operate with 18 flight attendants, Muñoz said. However, with PAL’s reduction of its cabin crews, the 400-seater plane now only carries 12 flight attendants onboard. Even business class passengers — who pay twice the cost of regular fares for wider seats and better amenities — aren’t spared from staffing cutbacks, Muñoz added. The 40 business class passengers on the 747-400 which are seated in the aircraft’s front and upper deck sections now only have two and three attendants respectively, Muñoz said. Before the cutbacks, three cabin crewmembers served the needs of the 16 business class passengers on the front section and four staffmembers took care of the remaining 24 on the 747-400’s upper deck, Muñoz said. Similarly, cabin crewmembers have also been reduced on PAL’s A330, A340, and A320 planes, which are used to serve medium-range and regional flights. Currently, PAL’s fleet consists of two Boeing 777-300 ERs, 5 Boeing 747-400s, four A340-300s, eight A330-300s, 18 A320-200s, and four A319-100s. Reduced crewmembers on flights “violates the collective bargaining provisions" contained in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the airline and the FASAP acting as union, the group said. It added that talks for a new CBA have been long been overdue since the old one expired three years ago. Fewer flight attendants “likewise will entail more work but reduces instead of adding more pay to the crew," the group said in a statement distributed on Tuesday. Previously, attendants who cover for absent crewmembers are entitled to share the latter’s allowance, Montecillo explained. However, that arrangement is no longer in effect, he said. The staff reduction scheme “will also affect the promotion process of domestic cabin crew members to international positions, creating demoralization," the statement said. Besides being overworked, flight attendants have also been denied pay increases for the past three years, the groups said. Vacation leaves have also been recalled and the days-off are used for operations, FASAP members said. Meanwhile, although PAL recognizes that the arrangement has “taken its toll" on flight attendants, it nevertheless asked them to “understand the situation," company spokesperson Cielo Villaluna told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow but the benchmark of other airlines is to reduce crewmembers," she said. Flight attendants “have learned to adjust," she added. Amid the concerns and assurances raised by both management and FASAP, the latter has yet to decide whether or not it would push through with its planned strike to break the perceived deadlock in talks towards a new CBA. The union’s strike plans will still have to be presented to its 1,600 members, FASAP president Roberto Anduiza had earlier said in a message dated July 22 but distributed to its members on Tuesday. (See: No date yet for PAL attendants' planned strike) The country’s law on strikes requires a union to undergo a “strike vote" and a mandatory “cooling-off period" before it is allowed to actually organize work stoppages and picket lines.—JV, GMANews.TV