As public school teachers complete their regular 10-month service per school year today, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines pressed the Duterte government ‘to justly compensate’ their forgone proportional vacation pay (PVP) due to the adjusted school calendar under distance learning. Public school teachers started working for the current school year on June 1, 2020, but with the current school year stretching up to July 2021, they are required to work for 14 months straight without a day of leave benefits.
PVP is a specific leave benefit granted to public school teachers as a counterpart to the mandated annual 15-day sick leave and 15-day vacation leave credits that other public and private sector workers enjoy. It used to be given during summer breaks, after teachers have rendered 10 months of continuous service in a school year.
“Requiring our teachers to do four months-worth of overtime work amid the pandemic and under the gruelling distance learning is grave labor abuse. While our teachers are ever willing to rise to the call of duty for the sake of our learners, it is only just for the government to fairly compensate them for their service,” asserted Raymond Basilio, ACT Secretary General.
In a letter sent to the Department of Education yesterday, ACT pressed the agency to immediately issue the guidelines for PVP for this school year and ‘come up with measures that would bring justice to the situation.’
Basilio shared that many teachers are suffering from physical and mental stresses due to overwork and burdensome expenses under the distancing learning. He cited that until now, public school teachers have not received the full payment for communication expense reimbursement and service recognition incentive for 2020 while the Performance-based Bonus for 2019 is yet to be released. Their demand for P1,500 monthly internet allowance remains unheeded while President Duterte’s promise for substantial salary increase is still unfulfilled.
“Habang bumibigat ang gawain at humahaba ang panahon ng pagpapatrabo, humahaba rin ang listahan ng utang ng gobyerno sa ating mga guro. Panawagan natin sa gobyernong Duterte: lingunin niyo naman ang mga guro na nagdurusa dahil sa inyong pagpapabaya at kapalpakan!” lamented Basilio.
Basilio said that despite the distance learning and work-from-home set-up, teachers are gearing for the intensification of protests to demand for their welfare.
“We have now reached the point where teachers are left with only three options: we fall ill, we leave the profession, or we fight. And just as we have before, we choose to fight,” concluded Basilio.#
31 March 2021
PRESS RELEASE
Teachers demand compensation for lost leave benefits
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