MANILA, Philippines - The planned retrenchment by month’s end of 3,000 Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees, as part of moves to outsource three non-core operations, had been put on hold with the Labor department’s (DoLE) assumption in late-April of jurisdiction over the dispute between the Lucio C. Tan-led flag carrier and the PAL Employees’ Association (PALEA), an internal PAL memo dated, May 21, read.

"DoLE’s secretary’s assumption of jurisdiction on the planned spin-off or outsourcing [sic] suspends the effect of the termination (of the affected workers’ services) due to the pending resolution of the labor dispute by DoLE," Remigio G. Siapno II, PAL assistant vice-president for Industrial Relations, wrote in an inter-office memorandum to Jose S.L. Uybarreta, vice-president for Human Resources.

This, in turn, means PAL’s planned outsourcing of its call center, catering and ground services by May 31 "shall not take effect as scheduled," the memo read further.

"In the meantime, employees who have received the termination letters shall continue to report for work and PAL shall continue to admit said workers," Mr. Siapno added.

"We shall await the decision of the Secretary of Labor and Employment."

In a phone interview on Tuesday, PALEA President Gerardo F. Rivera welcomed the suspension of termination of the affected workers’ services, saying: "we consider this development as a temporary victory for the employees...We hope that DoLE will resolve this issue as soon as possible."

Neither Labor Secretary Marianito D. Roque nor other department officials involved were immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

PAL had said late last month that outsourcing select non-core operations is estimated to yield savings of P1 billion-P1.5 billion, helping make the company more attractive to investors.

PAL will be paying around P2 billion in benefits to retrenched employees, who will get separation pay equivalent to one month’s salary for every year of service.