1,074 posts waiting to be filled at BI
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is urging the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to fill 1,074 vacant positions instead of allowing employees to do overtime.
In a press briefing yesterday, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno told reporters that the BI has yet to fill more than a thousand job posts. “As of 2017, there are 936 new positions.”
The bulk of the new positions, or 887 jobs, is from the BI’s newly formed Ports Operation Division, which the DBM
approved last March.
The BI has a total of 2,764 job positions, of which only 1,690 are filled as of March 31. This is higher than last year’s figure of 1,828 jobs, of which only 135 were left vacant as of the end of 2016.
“They keep on complaining and doing overtime work and yet they have many unfilled positions. So there must be some deliberate attempt on their part not to fill up positions so they can continue doing overtime work,” Diokno said.
President Duterte earlier vetoed the use of express lane charges to pay for the overtime hours rendered by immigration officers and the salary of contractual employees, which has caused mass resignation of BI employees.
On average, the monthly overtime pay of a BI employee is P38,637. Diokno said this is well in excess of the allowable overtime pay for some BI employees. He cited salary grade 11 employees who have an average monthly salary of P19,620, which means an average overtime pay of P38,637 is double their monthly take home pay.
The DBM chief noted that it is a violation of Joint Circular No.1 s. 2015 of the Civil Service Commission and the DBM, which states that the maximum overtime pay is 50 percent of the base salary of the employee.
Diokno also said it is not difficult to fill the vacant job positions in terms of requirements.
“The requirements for these jobs are not very difficult. You do not need a Ph.D. to be an immigration officer,” he added.
Diokno also noted that only regular employees can render overtime.
“If you have a job order, or a confidential agent, you have no right to charge overtime pay. And if you refuse to report for work, if you’re a JO (job order) or CA (confidential agent), you don’t have security of tenure. You can actually be removed,” he warned.
“The creation of new positions will enable the BI to absorb the JOs and CAs, if they qualify, and regularize their employment status,” he added.
Law needed for BI overtime impasse
For Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, a new law is needed to solve the impasse on overtime pay of immigration officers that has caused long queues at the airport and puts national security at risk.
In an ambush interview yesterday, Aguirre said there is a need to expedite the proposed law amending the Commonwealth Act 613 or the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 rationalizing the BI by increasing its workforce and their compensation.