A group challenged the newly-appointed chairperson of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Karlo Nograles to “once and for all” resolve the issue of teachers' unpaid overtime for School Year (SY) 2020–2021.
In a letter submitted on March 18, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines sought a dialogue with the new leadership of CSC to further discuss the matter and provided the commission anew with a copy of their position paper which was originally filed in November 2021.
ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said that the group “never heard back” from the CSC after it complied with their request for a position paper on the subject of teachers' overtime.
“This did not only prolong the hardships of teachers who are barely getting by with their meager salaries and who could've greatly benefited from the grant of the overdue overtime payment, but also prolonged the injustice they suffer from being denied their basic labor right to get proper remuneration for excess workdays,” Bailio said.
“We hope that the new leadership deals with the matter with utmost urgency, starting with an immediate response to our request for a dialogue,” he added.
ACT has been demanding overtime pay for the 77 excess workdays in the last school year, which started on June 01, 2020, and ended 13 months later on July 10, 2021.
The group said teachers have been tasked to render services beginning June 01 despite class opening being moved to Oct. 5 due to delays in preparations for the newly-instituted remote modes of learning.
ACT noted that during a dialogue held in June, the Department of Education (DepEd) claimed that teachers indeed rendered not just 77 days but 87 days of overtime in the last school year.
However, ACT alleged that DepEd “completely backpedaled” later on its word and “refused to acknowledge” any excess workdays.
Despite this, the group maintained that teachers rendered services for 297 days which is 77 days greater than the 220 maximum allowable class days by law.
“As such, the government owes the nearly one million public school teachers overtime compensation,” Basilio said.
The group continues to assert that teachers should be granted a 25-percent overtime premium and service credits for the 77 excess workdays in SY 2020-2021.
In 2021, ACT has staged various forms of protests to highlight their demand. Basilio assured that ACT will continue to demand what is due to the teachers.
“We hope CSC Chair Nograles shares this appreciation of our plight and decide in favor of our teachers, who form the largest civil service section,” he added.