THE GOVERNMENT’S plan to end the so-called “endo” or contractual work has failed to save the jobs of over 150 maintenance workers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1.
The male and female janitors who had been working for over 10 years under the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) as job order personnel (JOP) were served termination papers on Friday. Naia Terminal 1 has about 300 JOP.
When President Duterte came to office, they expressed hope their status as contractual workers would end.
Initially they were told they would be “absorbed” by Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. (PAGSS) following a memorandum of agreement between airline companies and the transportation department where the firms working at the Naia would handle the sanitation and maintenance of the restrooms at the terminals.
A JOP, who asked for anonymity, told the Inquirer in Filipino, “PAGSS requested all JOP files for review and asked 166 of us to report for interview.”
She said that during the interview, PAGSS interviewers always emphasized the age limit.
“They asked us to introduce ourselves, where we were assigned and how long we’d been working at the terminal. There was always the emphasis on age,” the JOP, who had been working at Naia for 14 years, said. “What can we do? Most of us grew old here,” referring to most of them being in their late 30s and up. Jeannette I. Andrade