As Strike Looms, PAL Flight Attendants Demand Fair Treatment From Government

FASAP said PAL’s P80 million ($1.7 million) package, an offer it has dangled for the first time since they began talking CBA three years ago, amounts to little really, “when spread over three years and distributed to 1,600 plus flight attendants.”

At present, most new flight attendants in PAL are receiving lower than the prescribed minimum wages, on top of other “little discriminations” such as lesser rice subsidies compared to other PAL employees.

“We thought the PAL management would at least implement the wage hikes ordered by the government in the past three years – but sadly PAL did not,” said Anduiza in Filipino. The result is, many PAL flight attendants are getting even lower than the country’s prescribed minimum wages now.

Not Just Anti-Workers, Also Anti-Women

In a statement the Gabriela Women’s Party also threw its support to the 1,600 strong protesting Philippine Airline flight attendants, two-thirds of which are women.

“No woman deserves to have her reproductive rights taken away from her by her employer,” Gabriela solon Emmi de Jesus stated after a consultation in Congress with a representative from FASAP yesterday. “When a woman in her thirties is forced to decide not to have a baby for fear that she cannot afford her child’s basic needs for food, clothing and shelter when she reaches her 40th birthday, that is tantamount to a violation of her reproductive rights,” de Jesus added.

Claridelle Reyes, a PAL flight attendant for 3 years now, receives a salary below the minimum wage level. (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

“When PAL imposed its discriminatory policy on reducing the retirement age of female flight attendants hired before 1996 to 55 years old, while males were allowed to continue until the age of 60, they showed themselves as sexist on top of being ageist,” de Jesus highlighted.

The discrimination gets worse as new batch of flight attendants were hired. At present, more than half of PAL flight attendants hired after 2000 would be retired at age 40.

“I will be too young to retire then, but too old to find another job,” said Claridelle Reyes, a flight attendant who has been with PAL for three years now. No thanks to PAL’s non-compliance with the government-mandated wage orders, Reyes receives only P8,600 ($189) basic pay per month, an amount below the minimum wage level.

Alice Robles worries that their union would be in danger and PAL would get more freedom in hiring contractuals. (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

Worse, said Alice Robles, a flight attendant in her 40s who would be retired at age 55, “almost all of the flight attendants would retire at nearly the same time in less than 10 years.” She worries that when the time comes, their union would be in danger and PAL would get more freedom “to hire contractual flight attendants.” In this way, their salaries would be kept lower, their benefits lesser to none, and the retirement benefits almost nonexistent.

For the defense of their job security, FASAP reiterated their intent to go on strike. They appealed to the riding public for understanding.

“It is not easy to go on strike,” Anduiza said. With the bulk of their members in international flights and only 350 in domestic, just to hold meetings entails a long series of talks in between flights.

But FASAP said “It’s time for PAL management to recognize the sacrifices made by flight attendants, and for PAL to put proposals on the CBA that improve the wages, benefits and working conditions of its loyal employees.” (Bulatlat.com)