Teachers who have rendered extended work for this school year should be given additional compensation by the government, a group of education workers said on Friday, July 15.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines reiterated the demand of teachers for the government to compensate them for up to three weeks of extended work for this school year.
Citing the school calendar issued by the Department of Education (DepEd) for School Year (SY) 2021-2022, ACT Philippines chairperson Vladimer Quetua explained that the “last day of the school year was June 24, 2022, and it should be the start of the 2-month school break because the new school year would start on August 22, 2022.”
Given this, Quetua said that DepEd “should recompense all teachers” from all over the country for at least one week of extended work as all were required to report for work from June 27 to July 1.
“It seems that the DepEd calendar cheated the teachers of their workdays by deviating from the old system that the week allotted for recognition and graduation ceremonies were included in the number of school days,” Quetua said.
Quetua pointed out that for this school year, the graduation week was not included in the prescribed number of school days, resulting in a one-week extension of teachers’ work.
Teachers, he added, are subjected to “exploitation” due to the extended work days. With the school opening set for Aug. 22, he lamented that teachers would not be able to avail of their two-month proportional vacation pay (PVP).
“It is only right to give teachers additional compensation for their extended work days,” Quetua said.
Teachers, he added, should have been under paid leave during this time and should have been given an additional daily rate plus 25 percent based on the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers and other orders.
“If the DepEd does not have funds then teachers should be given service credit of 1.25 days for every day of extended work,” Quetua said, noting they are entitled to service credits of 6.25 to 18.75 days from one up to three weeks of excess work.
Consequently, ACT said that the DepEd order limiting the grant of service credits to teachers to just up to 15 days per year “should be scrapped” as well.