KMU slams DOLE for upholding mass layoff of PAL employees

Just as it blabs about its so-called job creation in the past nine years, the Arroyo regime exposes its penchant for job massacres as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) affirms Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) “prerogative” to retrench thousands of employees via spin-off and outsourcing, Kilusang Mayo Uno said today.

KMU said the DOLE’s decision, which gives the green light to the layoff of 2,600 PAL employees, is a big concluding statement on Gloria Arroyo’s failure in ensuring workers’ job security and labor rights in her nine years as President.

“How can Filipino workers believe Arroyo’s claim of an improving job situation in the country if it will be ending its term with the mass layoff of 2,600 employees? Once again, the Arroyo regime’s actions speak louder than its fantastic propaganda,” KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog said.

“With the affirmation of PAL’s prerogative to implement mass job cuts, the labor department has just bared the ugly truth out of Arroyo’s rosy job figures. It has also issued a landmark rule which galvanizes the Arroyo regime’s anti-labor record in history,” he added.

Government statistics show that the number of jobless Filipinos has increased by more than 620,000 since 2001, a conservative estimate which also does not account for the quality of jobs created under Arroyo.

Surging profits

KMU also blasted PAL for reporting purported huge losses to justify the retrenchment of its employees belonging to its Call Center Reservations, In-Flight Catering and Airport Services units.

“Net earnings by Lucio Tan’s PAL Holdings Inc., which have an 81 percent share in the airlines, actually increased by 52.4 percent in 2009 based on the latest report by the Philippine Stock Exchange. This starkly contrasts the company’s claim of near-bankruptcy status during the same year,” Labog said.

The labor leader also cited PAL’s purchase of brand new Boeing 777 jets, new international flights and its grand 70,000 free seats promo as enough proof that the company is never suffering from huge company losses.

“Worse, the company is using the retrenchment plan to significantly paralyze the local union, since laying off 2,600 employees will reduce union membership by more than half,” Labog said.

“That’s why PAL employees’ fight to thwart the impending outsourcing and spin-off schemes is a legitimate and just struggle. They have to sustain their efforts to derail such grossly unjust and anti-worker move by PAL through their militant collective action,” he added.

KMU also said it will support PAL employees’ fight against the looming mass retrenchment.