PAL: FASAP forum-shopping with CHR case

Remember: it was FASAP who filed a notice of strike before DOLE alleging violations of workers' rights, ranging from maternity benefits, retirement age and pay. Since DOLE has primary jurisdiction over these labor issues, Philippine Airlines believes that the Labor Department is the proper venue to discuss and resolve them.

By raising the same issues before the CHR, is FASAP forum shopping to gain media mileage and public sympathy? We believe DOLE should take this matter seriously and put FASAP to task for making a mockery of a legitimate and on-going legal process.

In the meantime, PAL hopes the CHR will allow DOLE to perform its functions in accordance with law. It also hopes the CHR will be fair and impartial in handling this case, especially since current CHR Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales has publicly taken a position on the PAL-FASAP issue even before she was appointed to head the Commission.

President Benigno S. Aquino III, no less, instructed DOLE to take the lead in resolving FASAP's labor row with PAL management. But by using multiple venues, FASAP seems to be putting the President and DOLE in a straightjacket. It wants to show that it can choose a forum where it hopes to get a favorable decision.

We maintain that in Philippine Airlines, NO workers' rights have been trampled upon. Whatever salaries and benefits FASAP members enjoy are all contained in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

A CBA is a contract between two consenting parties. It is mutually agreed upon through serious deliberation and negotiation, with careful thought and a id of counsel. FASAP, as a collegial body, entered into a CBA with PAL management not once but several times in the past. It must be stressed that all previous CBAs were decided not by a few but ratified by all members of the cabin crew union.