The additional pay approved by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to compensate for the extended election service of poll workers was welcomed by teachers’ groups.

“We are glad that the Comelec approved our just demands for overtime compensation,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines said in a statement on Thursday, May 26.

The group welcomed the Comelec’s resolution heeding their demand for the grant of an across-the-board additional compensation for extended hours of election service on May 9, 2022.

“This is the first time that our teacher-poll workers will receive compensation for extended hours of service on the election, and is a product of our unions’ unrelenting fight for teachers’ rights and welfare,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.

“Now, we must work on ensuring that all eligible poll workers receive proper remuneration,” he added.

Related to this, ACT submitted an additional 4,213 names of poll workers who shall receive the recently approved P2,000 compensation for rendering services beyond 24 hours on election day.

The new list of eligible poll workers that ACT submitted to the Comelec adds to the initial list of 1,036 poll workers who reported working for more than 24 hours on May 9.

ACT noted that machine-related malfunctions remained to be the “most cited reason” for the extended work hours of teachers who served as poll workers.

Some teachers, ACT said, also reported that their extended election service was due to the “disorganized and unsystematic process” of Comelec’s retrieval of election paraphernalia, delays in the official transportation of materials, and heavy load of paperwork after voting closed --- among others.

Aside from granting the additional compensation to all poll workers who rendered more than 24 hours of election service on May 9 due to the varying issues they encountered during this period, ACT also asked that this “payment be released at the soonest possible time.”

In a separate statement issued May 25, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) also expressed its gratitude to both Department of Education (DepEd) and Comelec leadership for “recognizing the legitimacy of their call for the payment of overtime pay for teachers and employees who performed electoral duties beyond prescribed working hours in the recently concluded elections.”

On May 12, the TDC also sent separate letters addressed to Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan requesting the immediate processing of overtime pay and DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones to support their request, respectively.