The guidelines released by the Department of Education (DepEd) on the computation of proportional vacation pay (PVP) for the school year (SY) 2021-2022 confirmed that the agency “owes” teachers additional compensation for their extended work.
“The DepEd PVP computation confirms that they consider June 24 as the teachers’ last day of work, and teachers should have been officially on break starting June 25, 2022,” said Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines Chairperson Vladimer Quetua.
After DepEd released memorandum no. 77 series of 2022 which outlined the computation of teachers’ PVP for SY 2021-2022, ACT reiterated its call for additional compensation for work rendered beyond June 24, 2022.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/31/deped-teachers-entitled-to-61-days-of-proportional-vacation-pay-for-sy-2021-2022/
“Our teachers have always heeded the call of duty, in return, the DepEd should do its duty of properly compensating services actually rendered,” Quetua said. “We are teachers, not slaves, we hope the DepEd will grow a conscience,” he added.
Quetua pointed out that Section 14 of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers clearly stated that public school teachers should be granted additional compensation of their daily rate plus a 25 percent premium for services rendered outside of regular duties and work schedules.
“If funds are not available, service credits of 1.25 days per one day of extra work should be given in lieu of monetary compensation,” Quetua said. “However, DepEd did not grant any for the excess workdays that teachers were made to work last school year,” he added.
ACT said that teachers were not able to get the rest that they needed before SY 2022-2023 opened on Aug. 22.
Quetua said that public school teachers do not have sick leave nor vacation leave benefits and the DepEd has also “robbed” them of the only leave benefits they have during school break.
“We have already rendered the services, the least the agency can do is to pay up,” Quetua said.