A federation of teachers urged the government to provide just compensation for the proportional vacation pay (PVP) of teachers which, the group claimed, is now “gone” due to the adjusted school calendar under the distance learning set-up.
As public school teachers complete their regular 10-month service per school year on Wednesday, March 31, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines pressed the government - through the Department of Education (DepEd) - compensate them for the PVP.
“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,” said ACT in a statement.
The 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.
ACT claimed that this 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,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
He noted that “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.”
ACT also sent a letter to DepEd dated March 30 to press the agency to immediately issue the guidelines for PVP for this school year. The group also urged DepEd to “come up with measures that would bring justice to the situation.”
Basilio said that many teachers have been “suffering from physical and mental stresses due to overwork and burdensome expenses under the distancing learning.”
He alleged that some public school teachers “have not received the full payment” for communication expense reimbursement, the service recognition incentive for 2020 as well as the Performance-Based Bonus for 2019 which is “yet to be released.”
ACT said that their demand for P1,500 monthly internet allowance also “remains unheeded” while President Duterte’s promise for substantial salary increase is “still unfulfilled.”
Despite the distance learning and work-from-home set-up, ACT said 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,” Basilio said. “And just as we have before, we choose to fight,” he added.