KMU slams PAL’s offer of hefty retirement packages to lay off regular workers

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno denounced the Philippine Airlines (PAL) offer of early retirement packages to workers, branding it as a deceitful scheme to implement  mass layoff of regular workers to hire contractuals.

“We call on the PAL management to immediately stop offering early retirement packages to regular workers. While this scheme promises to give regular workers hefty retirement packages, it is still a form of massive retrenchment, and a deceitful one at that,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

Lucio Tan-owned PAL recently announced that it will reduce its 8,000 workforce, a majority of which are regular employees who have served the company for years.

But KMU said the company’s claim of losses is highly questionable given the increase in Tan’s net worth from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion as reported by Forbes Magazine.

“We don’t buy the lie that PAL is incurring losses, as its owner Lucio Tan has just firmed up his position as the second wealthiest man in the country today,” said Labog.

Labog added that the scheme cuts regular employees from the workforce to implement massive contractualization that will further boost the airlines company’s profits.

“This is what management means when it talks about ’reducing costs’: jacking up profits by reducing labor costs in the long run. While retirement packages for regular workers may be lucrative, management is able to more than make up for these with the entry of contractual workers – who are given low salaries and are deprived of regular benefits,” he said.

“In this scheme, the management is able to hit two birds with one stone. By employing contractual workers, it is also able to discourage unionization and the strengthening of unions in the company. That is because contractual workers can be fired and dispensed with immediately, with little or no cost to the management,” Labog added.

KMU also called on PAL employees to strongly oppose such company scheme. “We call on PAL employees: Don’t fall for this trap set up by the management. Stand your ground. Refuse to sign up for early retirement. Choose regular work over one-time compensation, even if it is a big-time one.”

“We call on PAL employees to come and work together to oppose the retrenchment schemes of the PAL management, and to organize among themselves to fight for their rights and interests. They will be serving their best interests by upholding a unionism that is genuine, militant and nationalist, and not one that is narrow and collaborationist,” said Labog.

KMU said a regular job will still be the workers’ best gurantee in sustaining family needs in the face of a protracted economic crisis. ###