Philippine
Airlines is crying harassment by its employees and their union (Palea) and
asking for support from business groups like the Makati Business Club.
Sort of like a "we're all in this
together and if it can happen to us it can happen to you" structural
message.
Unbelievable. In the past decade the public
has been witness to how badly PAL has treated its pilots (terminating, then
rehiring them at entry-level wages, asking for legislation to prevent pilots
from working for foreign airlines) and its flight attendants (firing, then
rehiring at entry-level wages, onerous working and retirement conditions,
long-drawn-out, never-ending CBA negotiations). And now, it wants to give its
ground crew the same fire-and-rehire-at-entry-level wages treatment, slightly
modified. Chutzpah.
From where I sit, PAL is not the victim of
labour unions (leftist/Red-leaning, is the sub-message) but the exploiter of
labour. It has been doing it for a long time, but this is beyond the pale. It
should not be allowed to get away with it. Only consider:
First, the background: In 1998, PAL was in
financial trouble as a result of a pilot strike, and as part of its
rehabilitation plan, downsized its labour force-but almost immediately rehired
most of them at entry-level salaries (i.e., loss of seniority-the start of a
pattern). The Palea went on strike to protest the downsizing, and then
President Joseph Estrada, a great friend of PAL owner Lucio Tan, created an
interagency task force to broker an agreement between PAL and Palea.
The agreement included Palea consenting to a
10-year suspension of the PAL-Palea Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), in
an effort to assure creditors and potential investors of industrial peace.
In effect, Palea not only agreed that in the
next 10 years, any wage increases would be decided solely by management, but
that there would also be a 10-year moratorium on strikes. Does that sound like
PAL was a victim and Palea the predator?
After the 10-year period, during which the
employees were given yearly wage increases that were less than what they had
been receiving with previous CBAs, PAL announced to Palea (August 2009) that it
intended to spin off/outsource the airport services department (every activity
of PAL performed in the airport) as well as the catering department. Does that
sound like PAL was a victim and Palea the aggressor?
Just like that. Having gone without bargaining
for 10 years, in order to help PAL turn its finances around, that is how
Palea's patience gets rewarded. And up to this time, PAL has refused to sit
down with Palea for CBA negotiations. Which means, as a result, that for the
past three years, the PAL employees have not received any salary increase. Does
that sound like PAL is a victim and Palea the aggressor?
Now let us focus on outsourcing. While it is
different from off-shoring (sending your laundry to the cleaners is
outsourcing), most outsourcing is also off-shoring or offshore outsourcing, and
our BPOs are examples. And the basic reason is to cut costs (e.g., in the BPO
situation, Philippine or Indian labour being cheaper than American or European
labour), and/or, as it is so delicately phrased, "to allow a company to
concentrate on its core competencies."
That sounds good, doesn't it? Who can possibly
be against such objectives? Which is why our labour department and the Office
of the President so sanctimoniously talk about "management
prerogative" being a valid reason for retrenchment.
But hold on a moment. A closer examination of
how this cost-savings will take place shows how PAL's version has made a farce,
a travesty of this principle.
Consider: who is PAL going to contract these
services out to? Well, from reports, it wants to contract the airport services
(passenger, baggage, cargo, handling, equipment maintenance) to a company
called Sky Logistics, and thus will no longer need the services of about 2,000
current employees. It intends to contract its in-flight catering activities to
a company called Sky Kitchen, thus no longer requiring the services of 400
current PAL employees. And finally, the reservations and bookings will be
contracted out to a call center called SPI Global, thus making another 300 of
its current employees redundant.
The problem, dear reader, is that with the
exception of SPI Global (which is PLDT's BPO arm, and which probably started
the rumor that Manny Pangilinan was about to buy PAL), the other two companies
have absolutely no experience in the services they are supposed to provide, and
were in fact reportedly incorporated only in 2009 (when PAL announced it was
outsourcing). It seems that their only claim to airline services activities is
that they are both named Sky.
Sky Logistics and Sky Kitchen are reportedly
owned by a Chinese-Filipino named Manny Osmea from Cebu - no relationship at
all with the Cebu Osmeas. I promise to look up their financials and their other
owners, if any.
So, if these two corporations are new and
untested, why did PAL choose them? One will not speculate.
But what PAL intended to do (in the guise of
doing its employees a favor) is to have these firms hire the 2,400 employees it
wants to retrench-but at entry-level salaries. Again. The nth time PAL uses
this technique, that's where the cost-savings will come from.
In other words, PAL's outsourcing consists of
firing its employees, and then hiring them at entry-level wages through what
looks like a couple of dummy corporations.
Stop the farce. Stop the exploitation.
Solita Collas-Monsod in Manila/Philippine
Daily Inquirer | ANN
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment