NAIA winning bidder required to offer jobs to airport employees —DOTr

The private sector group that bagged the contract to operate and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is required to offer jobs to the current workers of the airport to ensure no job losses would result from the privatization initiative, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said.

Last Friday, the DOTr announced that SMC-SAP & Company Consortium won the 15-year concession deal to rehabilitate, operate, and expand NAIA, with an option for a 10-year extension depending on the performance of the concessionaire. 

The winning group is made up of San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics Inc., RLW Aviation Development Inc., and Incheon International Airport Corp.

“Dito sa ating kasunduan with the operator, may probisyon kung saan kinakailangan na ito pong ating operator ay mag alok ng trabaho sa ating mga kasalukuyang manggagawa sa NAIA,” Transportation Undersecretary for Planning and Project Development Timothy John Batan said in an interview on PTV’s Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on Wednesday.

(In our deal with the operator, there is a provision where they are required to offer employment to the current workers in NAIA).

Batan said it is up to the workers if they will accept the job offer of SMC-SAP consortium.

Moreover, the Transportation official said that the job offers would also entail “improved terms.”

“So meron pong dagdag na sweldo na kaakibat ng offer na ‘yan kaya’t ito ay ating inaasahan na magiging acceptable sa ating mga empleyado sa NAIA,” Batan said.

(So there is an accompanying salary increase in that offer, thus we expect it to be acceptable to the NAIA employees.)

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista earlier said that no jobs will be lost when SMC-SAP group takes over NAIA as “employees will be absorbed” and some will be retained by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), which will remain as the regulator of the airport.

MIAA has 1,288 organic personnel; 2,554 contract of service staff; and 80 job order personnel as of December 31, 2022, based on a Commission on Audit report posted on the agency’s website.

Based on the timeline for the NAIA PPP project, the DOTr is targeting turning over the operations of the country’s main airport to the winning private sector group on September 11, 2024.

The SMC-SAP consortium would need to make an upfront payment of P30 billion to the government and another P2 billion in annual payments for the duration of the contract.

This is on top of the over 82% of its gross revenues it committed to remit to the government.

The group is committing at least P122.3 billion in capital investments for the entire 25-year concession period or about P4.89 billion per year.

Batan said that the government is expecting to generate P900 billion in revenues from the NAIA PPP project, inclusive of the upfront payment, annual payments, and the committed government revenue share.—LDF, GMA Integrated News