Will the AWOL pilots follow the same fate?
PAL wins key lawsuit vs. pilot
By Paolo Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, Philippines—Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has won a P3.3-million lawsuit against a pilot that went rogue in 2006, setting a potential precedent that can help the airline win its more recent case involving several airmen that resigned abruptly earlier this year.
“For violating his contractual obligations and training agreement with PAL, a former PAL pilot was ordered by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to pay the flag-carrier millions of pesos in training fees and other penalties,” the company said Monday in a statement.
In a decision dated Sept. 15, Makati Judge Elpidio Calis ordered pilot Zenon Lukban to pay PAL P1.5 million plus interest for the cost of his training at the PAL Aviation School.
The pilot was also told to pay P1.87 million, plus interest, for the cost of training his replacement, as well as P50,000 in attorney’s fees.
Under their contracts with PAL, pilots are required to stay with the airline for at least five years after completing their training to make up for the money the company spent for the training.
However, PAL said Lukban left the airline in 2006, or just two years after completing his training.
Lukban also left the airline even after his resignation request was rejected by management.
Lukban then failed to show up for work right after tendering his resignation, forcing PAL to declare him absent without official leave.
PAL said the legal victory could help it win its lawsuits against several pilots who resigned abruptly last August, resulting in the cancellation of several domestic and international flights, affecting over 5,000 passengers.
At least 27 pilots are confirmed to have resigned from the airline since last August, with all of them said to have left PAL after finding better paying jobs abroad.
However, the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (Alpap), which claims to informally represent the resigned pilots, said the resignations were caused by PAL management’s move to transfer its employees to sister company Air Philippines, where salaries were lower.
PAL has since then said it would no longer transfer any of its pilots to Air Philippines, which is being groomed to compete head-on with Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific—currently the country’s largest airline in terms of the number of passengers flown.
“The RTC’s order comes on the heels of PAL’s move to lodge multimillion-peso damage suits against 27 pilots and first officers who resigned in August to take higher-paying jobs,” the company said.
So far, complaints have already been filed against 16