Teachers should be compensated for the overtime work that they have rendered during the extended school year, ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro said on Thursday, April 15.
Castro called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to clarify the teachers' Proportional Vacation Pay for School Year 2020-2021 and issue a memorandum for its implementation.
"Our public school teachers would have been working for almost 13 months without an official summer break or vacation. Further, public school teachers do not have sick and vacation benefits unlike other employees in the public and private sectors," she said in a statement.
Last March, the DepEd adjusted the academic calendar and extended the current school year from June to July, requiring teachers to render 77 more working days than the mandated 220 school days in a school year.
Castro said that under the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular No 40, series of 1998 and as amended by CSC MC No. 9, s. 2012, public school teachers are entitled to the Proportional Vacation Pay.
Also, per section 9 of CSC MC No. 41 s. 1998, service credit is a privilege granted to teachers for days that they are required to work outside of their regular workdays, which they can use to offset their absences.
Further, the lawmaker said that the Labor Code of the Philippines provides for the payment of 25 percent premium on the salaries of workers who were required to render overtime work.
"Teachers should be given fair compensation for their hours of service especially with the lack of actual break for teachers since the intended break was given to In-Service-Trainings, SLAC or LAC sessions and other paperwork," Castro said.
"Also, work-from-home arrangements for teachers do not follow the eight-hour workday rule. There is no actual academic ease for teachers due to the numerous paperwork and additional tasks that the modular approach requires from them," she lamented.
Castro said she has written a letter to DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones about the appeal but she said the latter has yet to respond.
The ACT Teachers' Party-list had slammed as "inhumane and violative of the teachers' rights" the DepEd's extension of the school year.