MEMBERS of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-National Capital Region Union called on the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Budget and Management to release the overtime pay of public school teachers.

The group sought the release of the 25 percent overtime premium and service credits for 77 excess workdays the teachers rendered last school year.

“It’s been three months since we last heard from CSC and DBM regarding our call for overtime compensation. In our last dialogue, you deferred from issuing an opinion and instead asked us and DepEd to submit our position papers. We delivered ours to both CSC and DBM on November 10, but we’re still yet to receive any feedback. Ano na? Baka naman matapos na lang ang panibagong school year, wala pa rin kayong desisyon?” ACT NCR Union President Vladimer Quetua said.

“Teachers continue to meet the growing exigency of education delivery amid this seemingly never-ending pandemic. The health crisis and ensuing worse socio-economic crisis have taken its toll on our and our family’s well-being, as evidenced by the recently implemented health break across many regions in the country. We’re not asking for much, only for the government to properly compensate us for our work,” Quetua said.

The group pushed for the granting of 25 percent overtime premium as well as service credits for 77 days of excess workdays, for School Year 2020–2021.

While DepEd refused to acknowledge any excess in work days, ACT presented 10 years-worth of memoranda on school calendar and Proportional Vacation Pay computation that showed that DepEd has always treated work days as equivalent to class days.

In the last school year, teachers were ordered to render services on June 1, 2020 even as classes were repeatedly delayed until October 5, 2020, which resulted in a total of 297 work days for teachers. The maximum allowable class days as per Republic Act 7797 is only up to 220 days.

“We reiterate our demand for CSC and DBM to urgently release a decision in favor of our public school teachers, who compose the largest section of government employees. We have long been neglected by this government by way of low salaries and poor and delayed benefits, it’s about time you properly remunerate us for our services,” Quetua said.