The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) calls on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to provide “direct and opportune intervention” on the Department of Education’s (DepEd) failure in compensating public school teachers appropriately for their more than three months of overtime work while preparing for distance learning last year.
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ACT members recently held a noise barrage in front of the head office of the CSC in Quezon City on Friday, October 1. They demanded the agency to ensure that a proper compensation for the overtime work rendered by teachers for 87 days from June 1 to Oct. 3, 2020 would be rewarded.
ACT said that an agreement was agreed upon through a multi-party dialogue by ACT, the CSC, the DepEd, the Department of Budget and Management and ACT Teachers party list that grants vacation service credit for teachers’ overtime work in the last school year and a 25-percent overtime premium.
However, the DepEd said under Republic Act No. 7977 as amended by RA 11480, overtime pay could not be claimed on days in excess of the 220 maximum numbers of school days.
Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the agency did not agree on ACT’s interpretation of the law.
He cited Section 1 of RA 7977 that the number of school days during the school year will not be considered as a basis for additional pay for regular teachers.
Although the DepEd acknowledged that teachers rendered services from June to September last year—even before the official start of classes on Oct. 5, 2020—they had received their monthly salaries for the period which amounted to around P120 billion.
Thus, they were regularly compensated for the regular eight-hour workday required of teachers like other government employees,
Malaluan said.
On the other hand, Basilio countered Malaluan’s statement as “baseless and a lie” saying that Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo had already affirmed the compensation for the 87-day overtime work of teachers during the June multiparty dialogue.
He cited Section 14 of RA 4670, the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, stating that teachers will be paid an additional compensation for “cocurricula and out-of-school activities outside of what is defined as normal duties of any teacher.”
ACT has given the DepEd to commit to its promise until Oct. 5, World Teacher’s Day.
We urge the CSC to put its foot down and take favorable actions in support of our public school teachers. Otherwise, we will be forced to take matters into our own hands and claim what is due us and demand for our rights,
Basilio said.
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