PM wants PALEA outsourcing gone

CEBU, Philippines - The Partido Manggagawa is urging incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to start off his anti-'endo' or end of contract campaign by rectifying an "injustice" committed by outgoing President Benigno Aquino III against the Filipino workers.

PM-Cebu spokesman Dennis Derige said in a statement this injustice was Aquino's approval of Philippine Airlines' outsourcing program in 2011.

Derige said that the outsourcing program has altered the employment status of 2,600 PAL employees from regular to contractual.

He said that for more than two years members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association have stood firm in opposing the program by building and sustaining a protest camp at PAL's In-Flight Center.  The campaign call, "Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat," has since then become the battle cry of organized labor against the policy of contractualization.

In September 2013, the union and the PAL management entered into a settlement agreement which provides for a compensation and re-employment package for some 600 members of PALEA who opposed the outsourcing program.

"PAL has not fully complied with the agreement particularly on PALEA 600 re-employment as regular workers. Eight of the 600 are PALEA members from Cebu," Derige said.

Derige added that this injustice does not require three or six months to rectify.

"Once justice is served to the PALEA 600, a clear direction is presumed to have been set for a serious anti-endo campaign of the new administration. We do expect a non-business-as-usual approach to this issue," he said.

Ending endo or the industry practice of hiring workers on contractual basis was one of the main platforms of Duterte.

Labor groups describe this policy as a plague that perpetuates the problem of poverty and inequality in the country as it undermines workers' right to decent work and life of dignity.

The labor group, however, is worried that the 8-point economic agenda of the president didn't set out a "bagong daan" framework to indicate a new era or a new beginning.  (FREEMAN)