THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers on Tuesday stormed the central office of the Department of Education in Pasig City to press their call for fair compensation and overtime pay.

The group asked DepEd to give public school teachers service credits and 25 percent overtime pay. They noted that teachers rendered  77 extra working days because of the shift to online learning.

“Our teachers have always given too much despite their circumstances, and they only ask for what is due them. They have received little to no support from the government for all their efforts since the start of the pandemic,” the group said.

“Extended na nga ang school year, abonado na nga sa distance learning, hindi man lang ba bibigyan ng karampatang kompensasyon ang mga guro sa walang tigil nilang serbisyo?” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

The adjusted school calendar set the last day of classes on July 10, 2021, requiring teachers to work 297 days since they started reporting for the school year on June 1, 2020, including Saturday classes from October 2020.

Republic Act 22480 sets the maximum number of school days in a school year at 220 days.

The group said the present school calendar deprives teachers of their proportional vacation pay, the only leave benefits accorded to them.

“We call out the Department of Education for once again dismissing teachers’ welfare and trampling on their labor rights. It is not only inhumane to oblige our teachers to extend work for another three months without proper compensation, but the heavy amount of work demanded of them during these times is grossly abusive,” Basilio said.

He urged DEPED to grant teachers service credit for each day of work in excess of the mandated maximum 220 school days, and an additional pay of 25 percent on the daily rate of teachers for each day of overtime work in line with the provisions of the Labor Code.

“Today, we challenge DepEd to stay true to its vision of improving itself to ‘better serve its stakeholders’ and heed the demands of our teachers, one of its stakeholders. Hindi puwedeng bigay na lang nang bigay si teacher habang ang gobyerno ay nananatiling pikit-mata sa kanyang mga hinaing at pasakit. After all, what would the future of our country be without our educators?” Basilio asked.