Abusing overtime
Four hours of waiting to board a domestic flight, and five hours for international departures. Long, snaking lines at the immigration arrival counters. While other countries are constantly moving to ease the pain of air travel and to speed up arrival and departure procedures, the Philippines is going in the opposite direction.
And it’s not even because the country is embroiled in armed conflict or faces an imminent terrorist threat. A long-simmering human resource problem has boiled over: immigration personnel assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport have gone on leave en masse because of unmet demands for overtime pay.
The problem is just the latest illustration of how the NAIA remains stuck in 1960s-era operations in the 21st century. Elsewhere, international airports never sleep, ready to service flights from all time zones. This means having enough personnel working in shifts, with employees working overtime – which naturally calls for higher pay – only if the need arises.
In the Philippines, airport overtime is done regularly, padding Bureau of Immigration personnel expenses even while there are over 1,000 vacancies in the BI waiting to be filled. The sensible move should have been done ages ago: to hire more immigration personnel to man NAIA counters.
Instead the government passed on the overtime payments not just for BI but also airport Customs personnel to airline companies. This was among the factors, aside from the common carrier tax for long-haul flights, which prompted European and several other foreign carriers to end direct flights to the Philippines. The travel and tourism industry has yet to fully recover from the impact.
The BI employees, whose bureau is still reeling from a corruption scandal involving casino mogul Jack Lam, have chosen to go on leave at the worst time: the summer break, a peak season for travel, starting with the approaching Holy Week. President Duterte should ask those in charge of the BI to explain why this problem has been inflicted on the public.
When public interest suffers, the state can sanction employees. The impact of the mass leave can be likened to a wildcat strike, which can be a legitimate ground for dismissal or at least a reassignment to Sulu and Basilan.
While phasing out the abuse of overtime, the government must fill those BI vacancies. Processing travel documents is not rocket science, and there are millions of unemployed Filipinos who can qualify as immigration officers. The BI needs employees whose foremost concern is serving the public instead of making the NAIA a consistent contender for the dishonor of being the world’s worst airport.