Manila: The Philippine government has succeeded in making its flagship airline carrier Philippine Airlines accept, without sanctions, some of the 25 pilots who resigned without giving advance notice.
Their resignations resulted in the airline having to cancel nearly 40 flights.
PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime J. Bautista: “The government asked PAL to take back the resigned pilots without sanctions. We agreed [to implement that plan]”.
The airline has also agreed to allow the pilots to repay, on “friendlier terms”, the P1.8 million (Dh150,000) the company says each of them owes for their training.
Bautista said the men had signed a contract with Philippine Airlines to work for at least five years to repay the cost of their training.
“[But] what’s [more] important to us is that they should give us a 180-day notice before leaving the company,” he said.
Some of the 25 pilots, however, left the country immediately after they resigned on Wednesday.
A number were hired by companies in the Middle East and Asia, where they were reportedly offered three times their previous salary of $11,000 (Dh40,393) a month. The company has said it’s not possible for those pilots to return now.
On Sunday, Philippine Airlines threatened legal action if the pilots refused to return for work after seven days.
The Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines said the company had forced some of the pilots to transfer to Air Philippines, Philippine Airlines’ sister company, where they were given a lower salary.
The association said the move was the result of budget constraints.
Bautista said Air Philippines was Philippine Airlines’ answer to the dominant budget carrier Cebu Pacific.
Those working at Philippine Airlines have reported growing unrest within the company since last year when the employer reportedly requested flight attendants to not proceed with their scheduled strike in September.
Philippine Airlines also told ground crew to refrain from striking next month. Employees are also said to be protesting the Philippine Airlines’ retirement age for female flight attendants, which is 40.
Since Monday, four secretaries of President Benigno Aquino have intervened to hold talks with Philippine Airlines management and representatives of the company’s labour unions.
Intervening in the dispute was intended to avert a crisis.
"Hopefully we will be able to come up with a resolution, so that the public is not inconvenienced and the economy does not suffer because of what is an inter-company dispute," Aquino said.
Bautista said despite its shortage of pilots, Philippine Airlines will not cancel flights to the US. The company had been planning to expand its profitable US routes.
