UP labor dean: Oust Corona moves might affect PALEA case

18-Dec-11, 12:25 PM | Veronica Uy, InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines -- The high-handedness and the shortcuts that the Aquino administration are resorting to in getting Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona ousted may have dire consequences for labor cases like the contractualization issue of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association now pending before the courts, said Dean Jonathan Sale of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

After the Secretary of Labor assumed jurisdiction of the case and decided that PAL has the management prerogative to contract out three aspects of the airline operations, the workers appealed their case before President Benigno Aquino III, who subsequently affirmed the secretary’s decision. The workers have since gone to the Court of Appeals to seek judicial review of the executive’s rulings. 

“Problem is, what if your courts are controlled by the present administration? What will become of the decision? Would you expect an Aquino-controlled Supreme Court to reverse? Sabi nga nung isang justice, ang sinabi ng hari ay hindi nababali (As one justice said, what the king says is law),” Sale told InterAksyon.com.

The actions of the Aquino administration in its oust Corona campaign are “very dangerous,” said Sale, who is also a lawyer. 

“I am joining my brothers and sisters in the law profession who have spoken out against the totalitarian tendencies of the executive branch,” he said, referring to the statement of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. 

Sale warned against abusing the President’s popularity to advance its agenda to replace the chief justice with one who is more agreeable to the present administration. He said the President is already a “super president” with enormous powers at his disposable, and he should not use his popularity to manipulate public sentiment. 

“Come to think of it, who is more prone to manipulate the public? A popular president or an unpopular president?” he asked. 

“And you cannot say that (President Aquino) is incapable of abusing power,” he said.

PALEA at UP Lantern Parade

PALEA workers joined the SOLAIR contingent at Friday’s UP Lantern Parade. Aside from the Higantes representing the tripartite worker, capitalist, and government, SOLAIR accommodated the PALEA workers and their PAL plane replica in its presentation. 

When the SOLAIR float approached the Palma Hall and the Melchor Hall steps, where huge crowds gathered to watch the parade, the PALEA workers chanted, “Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat (PALEA’S fight is everyone’s fight).”

Sale said the Labor Code tilts in favor of the less powerful between labor and capital. 

Citing Article 4 of the Labor Code, he said the government should have ruled in favor of PALEA in the contractualization case. 

“That is actually in effect mentioned in the law: In cases of doubt, any doubt should be resolved in favor of labor,” he said. 

“But in this case, di ganun nangyari. Parang sinasabi duon (that did not happen. It’s like saying), there is no doubt,” he added.

Workers’ employment contract tied to carrier’s contract to public 

Sale raised another issue that has not been raised in connection to the PALEA contractualization case. He said the PALEA’s employment contract is closely linked to PAL’s obligations under the Civil Code. 

According to a provision in the Civil Code, common carriers -- on land, air, and sea – are required to exercise extraordinary diligence in moving goods and people all throughout the travel process.

Meaning, the carrier’s contract with the public that the government must ensure and uphold covers the period from the time the passenger buys the ticket to until he disembarks and takes his baggage. 

In the event of any damage to cargo or injury to passenger, the law presumes that the common carrier is negligent or at fault, Sale said, adding that the burden rests on the common carrier to establish that it exercised extraordinary diligence. 

“If that is the contract of the carrier, can you cut it up in such a way that you parcel out aspects of it? How can the government now enforce that legal obligation?”

“This is one aspect (of the case) that has not been tackled extensively,” the SOLAIR dean said. 

“The contract of employment of PAL employee is connected to contract of carrier,” he reiterated.

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/19912/up-labor-dean-oust-corona-moves-might-affect-palea-case

Lucio Tan, a.k.a. the Grinch

Published : Monday, December 12, 2011 00:00    Written by : DAN MARIANO

THE season will be less than bright for the 2,600 former regular employees of Philippine Airlines (PAL) who found themselves jobless when the Lucio Tan-owned carrier adopted its so-called outsourcing program last October.

The dismissed regular workers, members of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA), have been replaced by “contractuals” who do the work that PALEA members used to perform, but are hired by other companies contracted by PAL.

The airline owners claimed that they had to resort to outsourcing because PAL has been losing money, insisting that high labor costs were eating away at the airline’s revenue. Of course, they do not mention the fact that the airline management’s decision in 2008 to resort to “fuel hedging” was what really put PAL deep in the red.

In February 2009, PAL president Jaime Bautista was reported to have disclosed that PAL would post its first full-year loss since 2004 primarily because of a hedging program that had been meant to address volatile fuel prices.

In July 2008, crude oil prices skyrocketed to an all-time high of US$147 per barrel but by early 2009 they had dropped to just above US$40. Unfortunately for PAL, its management—which mistakenly assumed that fuel prices would remain high—had locked the carrier to contracts to buy fuel at much higher prices even long after crude costs had begun to drop.

Little information has leaked out of the PAL boardroom as to which company officials were responsible for this costly miscalculation—or if they were penalized at all for a decision that proved financially disastrous for the airline and ultimately its hapless employees.

But instead of owning up to their blunder, the owners and managers of PAL decided to take it out on the ground personnel of the airline—the 2,600 members of PALEA who thereafter began to be portrayed by PAL’s public relations machinery as the biggest financial burden to the company.

Unfortunately for PALEA members, they found no receptive ear in the Department of Labor and Employment and other government agencies as well as Lucio Tan’s “friends” in media. Rather than aggrieved workers, the PALEA members were portrayed as troublemakers who refused to see reason. Eventually, PAL resorted to calling them “terrorists.”

Nearly three months after PALEA members were forced out—literally—of the company’s premises, emotions are still raw. The outrage has not died down, not just among the displaced workers but also members of the general public that now wince every time PAL is described as “the flag carrier.”

Among the staunchest supporters of the victims of PAL’s outsourcing scheme are the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and other civil society groups. In a recent press statement, these groups called for a boycott of PAL and its bargain airline sister company AirPhil.

“This Christmas break, don’t fly airlines owned by the Grinch,” FDC President Ricardo Reyes told reporters recently. “Because of his greed, Lucio Tan has stolen Christmas of retrenched PAL workers. He acts like the true Grinch.”

Created by Dr. Seuss, the Grinch is a fictional character who first appeared as the main protagonist in the 1957 children’s book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Now, it is a term used to describe a person with a coarse and greedy attitude and opposed to Christmas time celebrations.

“It is almost Christmas time—our great Kapaskuhan, a time for families, friends, neighbors, and loved ones to gather, celebrate and share blessings with one another. But not for 2,600 of our kababayan PAL employees and their families who until now face the uncertainty of a prolonged deadlock due to Lucio Tan’s refusal to sit down with PALEA and address their just demands,” said Reyes.

“We are urging the riding public, particularly the students, government and private workers and [overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)] to support the members of PALEA in their struggle against the mass lay-off, contractualization, and their fight to protect their job security. PALEA’s fight is also our fight. As riding customers, we can best support PALEA by hitting Lucio Tan where he hurts most—by not flying PAL and AirPhil, until he sits down with PALEA and address their just demands,” he said. 

Agnes Matienzo of Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA): “In support of the 2,600 PALEA members who are unilaterally locked out and terminated by PAL, MFA continues to call on our fellow OFWs and partners/affiliates in over 16 countries in Asia not to fly PAL this Christmas unless Lucio Tan sits with PALEA and address their demands. PALEA members’ fight is our fight. As migrants’ advocate, we demand host countries to respect the right of our workers overseas to unionize and demand for just wages and job security. How do we expect destination countries to respect and protect the rights of our workers, if the rights of our local workers are blatantly violated? We shall never accept that the rights of our local workers are violated. The interest of 10 million OFWs and the interest of 2,600 PALEA members are one and the same. Boycott PAL and stop corporate greed!”

Max de Mesa, chairman of Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), said: “PAL workers are co-creators of the wealth of the company. Thus, not only should the quality of life of workers rightfully and proportionately improve as the company develops and grows—this is a collective aspect of the right to development. More important, they should be integral to the company itself. The owner’s and management’s decision to outsource as part of its overall contractualization plan is to deceptively cut off its co-creators of corporate wealth under the false basis of ‘financial losses.’ This is corporate callousness. They have disjointed themselves from the same humanity as their workers so as to accrue profits primarily for themselves. The vaunted plan of separation benefits is no more than a ruse to distract from the truth of corporate greed and the deprivation of workers’ rights.”

Other groups have signed up to the “Don’t Fly PAL/AirPhil” campaign. Whether this boycott will cause Lucio Tan and his underlings to mend their ways—just like another fictional character Mr. Scrooge—by Christmas Day, we’ll find out soon enough.

Frankly, I doubt it.

dansoy26@yahoo.com

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/columnist1/13045-lucio-tan-aka-the-grinch

Hire for long term, ILO exec urges companies

By: Philip C. Tubeza

Philippine Daily Inquirer

2:06 am | Thursday, December 8th, 2011

KYOTO, Japan—Think long term.

Companies that want to be successful in the long run should invest in their workers and not just hire contractuals for short-term profit, an International Labor Organization (ILO) expert said Wednesday.

Kee Beom Kim, a ILO employment specialist, said firms that hire regular workers and invest in increasing their productivity are the ones that would eventually emerge “successful and prosperous.”

“We know that the companies that are able to survive for the long term and prosper are those whose employees are productive, are happy, and they have good morale,” Kee said in an interview.

Not good for morale

“Having workers whose contracts are for a very short period of time— that cannot be good either for the morale of those workers or in terms of the investment in those workers,” he said.

Kee is one of the experts at ILO’s 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting here tackling policies on job protection and economic growth amid the global financial crisis. The meeting attended by labor ministers and other stakeholders from the region ends on Wednesday.

Kee said contractualization was a quick response by companies to globalization, but he emphasized that firms should “think long term.”

“Countries are faced with many pressures as a result of world trade and globalization. These kinds of mechanisms provide companies with a means by which they can address some of these pressures. But having said that, one has to think long term,” he said.

Kee said using contractuals meant lower investment in employee productivity, which would eventually prove detrimental to a company’s interests.

Long term planning

“As a company, if one worker is going to be around for only six months, you have less incentive to invest in the productivity of that worker and providing him with more skills training because you know that after six months he’ll be gone,” Kim said.

He said, however, that long-term planning was a “key challenge for many companies because they’re required to report on their financial operations every quarter in many cases.”

Source: http://business.inquirer.net/34079/hire-for-long-term-ilo-exec-urges-companies

Baldoz defends government’s outsourcing policy at Kyoto meet

By: Philip C. Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer

2:41 am | Thursday, December 8th, 2011

KYOTO, Japan—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Wednesday defended the government’s policy on outsourcing at the International Labor Organization regional meeting being held here after an ILO delegate questioned the government’s handling of the labor dispute at Philippine Airlines (PAL).

Baldoz declined, however, to discuss the details of the labor case between PAL and its ground crew union—the PAL Employees Association (Palea)—but emphasized that the government was only making sure that both the rights of management and of labor were respected.

“I would rather that I respond by not discussing the details of the Palea case because this is now pending in our courts and it would be premature and sub judice,” Baldoz said during a panel discussion on workers’ rights and social dialogue.

An ILO delegate had asked her about the labor case, noting that the protesting workers “have been staying in a tent” for more than a month.

PAL laid off 2,600 members of its ground crew in September and outsourced their jobs but Palea questioned their dismissal before the Court of Appeals.

Baldoz said the Constitution recognized both the rights of labor and the prerogatives of management and that the government would step in when abuses happen.

“In our Constitution, there is a body of rights on the workers’ side and on the employers’ side. The right to collective bargaining, right to strike, peaceful concerted activities and security of tenure (for labor) and business’ right to manage and expand their enterprise and get a reasonable return of investment, as long as this is done fair and equitably,” Baldoz said.

“That’s what we look at whenever an issue of outsourcing, which is highly emotional and politicized, comes up,” she added.

Baldoz said that while Philippine law allowed for outsourcing and subcontracting, there “are certain limitations.”

“Outsourcing done by fly-by-night contractors is very much prohibited. Clearly, we now require them to be substantially capitalized. This is the first time this is being done and this a product of tripartite discussions,” she said.

Baldoz said that discussions between government, business and labor had come to the conclusion that “there is legitimate subcontracting.”

“What came out was the recognition of labor groups and management that there is legitimate subcontracting which should be recognized but that this should not be used to circumvent labor laws,” she said.

“Of course, there was also a recognition that some business activities cannot be outsourced. And that (outsourcing) is not a unilateral exercise of management. If there’s a union, there should be a collective negotiation,” she added.

Source:http://business.inquirer.net/34085/baldoz-defends-government%E2%80%99s-outsourcing-policy-at-kyoto-meet