Philippine Airlines hands out separation checks

Nearly 500 former Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees received their separation pay over the weekend as the national flag carrier began distributing P2.6 billion in cash benefits to those affected by the airline’s outsourcing program.

In a press statement, PAL said the first batch to receive their separation checks were those who had already transferred to PAL’s three service providers—SkyLogistics Philippines, SkyKitchen Philippines and SPi Global.

Employees in this batch lined up at five check distribution points—PAL HR office at the PNB head office in Pasay City, PAL Benefits office at Nichols, PAL Cargo, Naia Terminal 2 and PAL Cebu.

On Oct. 15, PAL started distributing another 1,500 checks to the second batch—those who refused to accept jobs at the service providers but did not participate in the Sept. 27 work stoppage at Naia Terminal 2. The whole distribution process could take about a week.

The checks of those who staged the wildcat strike are on hold pending final clearance of these employees.

“There are long queues at the PAL counters in PNB and other areas, but PAL’s human resources, finance and legal departments are doing their best to process all applicants for the day,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in the press statement.

PAL will hold for safekeeping any unclaimed checks of employees all of whom were officially considered terminated as of Oct. 1. The airline said the hopes of some employees that they could rejoin the airline rather than its service providers were misplaced as the three PAL departments where they used to work had been abolished.

Per PAL records, more than 28 percent of the affected employees will receive P1 million and above; 37 percent will get between P750,000 and P1 million; and 22 percent below P500,000. The biggest check is for P2.4 million, while the smallest is P120,000. The cash component of the benefits is tax-free.

The noncash benefits include free PAL tickets, one-year hospitalization and salary guarantee.

Villaluna said the separation pay was much higher than industry levels and more than the prescribed benefits under the labor code and PAL’s own collective bargaining agreement with its ground workers’ union.