THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers pressed the Duterte government “to justly compensate” their forgone proportional vacation pay due to the adjusted school calendar.

It said that public school teachers started working on June 1, 2020, but with the current school year stretching up to July 2021, they are required to work for 14 months straight without a day of leave benefits.

PVP is granted to public school teachers as a counterpart to the mandated annual 15-day sick leave and 15-day vacation leave credits that other public and private sector workers enjoy. It used to be given during summer breaks, after teachers have rendered 10 months of continuous service in a school year.

“Requiring our teachers to do four months’ worth of overtime work amid the pandemic and under the gruelling distance learning is grave labor abuse. While our teachers are ever willing to rise to the call of duty for the sake of our learners, it is only just for the government to fairly compensate them for their service,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

ACT in a letter asked the Department of Education to issue the guidelines for PVP for this school year and “come up with measures that would bring justice to the situation.”

Basilio claimed that many teachers are suffering from physical and mental stresses because of heavy workload and burdensome expenses. He lamented that public school teachers have yet to receive the full payment for communication expense reimbursement and service recognition incentive for 2020, as well as their performance-based bonus for 2019.

“Habang bumibigat ang gawain at humahaba ang panahon ng pagpapatrabaho, humahaba rin ang listahan ng utang ng gobyerno sa ating mga guro. Panawagan natin sa gobyernong Duterte: lingunin ninyo naman ang mga guro na nagdurusa dahil sa inyong pagpapabaya at kapalpakan!” He said.

“We have now reached the point where teachers are left with only three options: we fall ill, we leave the profession, or we fight. And just as we have before, we choose to fight,” he added.