SIX regional unions of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers submitted a position paper calling for the suspension of the twice-a-month pay scheme for teachers.

The group maintained that the twice-a-month salary scheme brings more problems to teachers and non-teaching staff.

The position paper detailed five reasons why the scheme should be stopped — lack of consultation; decimation of pay day take and higher expenses; insufficient salaries to meet bills; withholding of pay release by lending institutions that have not adjusted to the new scheme; and heavier workload for education support personnel.

The document was signed by officers of 15 regional unions and the top officers of ACT Philippines.

“Our accredited and registered unions are duly recognized by the law as representatives of public school teachers under the Department of Education, five of which hold the sole and exclusive negotiating agents status, and their Collective Negotiation Agreement—signed by both the unions and their respective DepEd regional office—explicitly require the latter to consult the former on policies related to their employment, welfare, and rights. As such, DepEd is duty-bound to act on the contentions and demands being raised by their employees’ representatives,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

“Kahit anong pambabaluktot pa ang gawin ng DepEd, malinaw na lumabag ito sa demokratikong proseso ng konsultasyon bago nito ipinatupad ang polisiya hinggil sa pasuweldo ng mga guro. Kaya hindi na nakapagtataka na marami ang umaalma sa bagong iskemang ito,” he added.

Instead of changing the release schedule, ACT urged DepEd to work towards raising the salaries of its employees. In recent weeks, more and more candidates are committing to upgrading teachers’ and education support personnel’s salaries in the public sector.

“For once, DepEd should support its personnel’s just demands. The current education crisis only serves to strengthen the need to substantially raise the pay of education workers. Now more than ever, DepEd must speak up and act to further the interests of the sector. That includes the overdue upgrading of our salaries—SG 15 for Teacher 1 and P16,000 minimum for SG1 ESPs,” Basilio said.