Proposals to upgrade salaries and benefits cannot be implemented until a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is finalized as there is no legal foundation for their distribution, the UST management has insisted.
In a memorandum to administrative officials and staff dated March 10, management panel head Prof. Cheryl Peralta cited Section 7.2.2 of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 8, series of 2012, which states that 70% of the tuition hike shares that must go to the salaries of faculty and support staff includes increases that may have been provided for in the CBA.
“The University understands the importance of fair and timely compensation adjustments. However, we need to comply with legal and regulatory guidelines…Distributing the TFI (tuition fee increase) shares without completing the CBA negotiations does not provide a basis for the distribution and negates all ongoing efforts to negotiate the economic provisions of the CBA,” she said.
Peralta, also the vice rector for academic affairs, said it has always been a “practice” to rely on the terms and conditions of a signed bargaining deal in determining how work salaries and benefits should be distributed.
“Thus, if we release the TFI shares without completing the CBA then we cannot use this proposed…improvement in salaries and benefits,” the University official said in a voice-recorded presentation.
The memorandum was intended to explain the delays in the tuition hike share allocation intended for UST academic personnel.
The UST Faculty Union has voted to declare a deadlock in the 2021-2026 CBA negotiations, its president, Asst. Prof. Emerito Gonzales, announced on March 12. A total of 680 out of 1,193 members rejected the management’s final offer of salary hikes and other benefits.
READ: UST faculty union declares deadlock in negotiations on salary hike, other benefits
Peralta also denied allegations that the P26 million tuition hike allocation for rank upgrades and salary restructuring for senior high school reduces academic staff’s share in the tuition increase. The tuition hike from the previous academic year accounted for funding the rank upgrades and salary restructuring for academic staff of senior high school, she added.
“This does not diminish the intended academic staff shares because the P26 million TFI allocation for rank upgrades and salary restructuring was obtained from the TFI for the academic year [2023-2024]…where we requested a 6% TFI from the students across all year levels,” Peralta said.
She also refuted the claim about senior high school academic staff only receiving an P11 salary increase, saying all faculty members would benefit from the salary and rank upgrades that would be agreed upon in the CBA.
“Any approved salary restructuring for SHS academic staff will be [in addition to] the 8.489% salary increase and benefits improvement from AY 2020-2021 to AY (academic year) 2023-2024 granted to all academic staff. The actual increase per unit will depend on the academic staff’s current rank, multiplied by the total teaching load,” she said.
The UST administrator also explained the P3-million allocation to replenish the hospitalization fund, saying such a scheme was based on an analysis of the fund utilization, which was “already sufficient.”
“The current fund balance is P40 (million) with annual replenishment of P10 (million). With the proposed annual replenishment coming from the TFI, agreed upon by both negotiating panels, plus the P3 (million) one-time replenishment provided by the University, the total fund balance by the end of AY 2023-2024 is P72M (million),” Peralta said.
“Beginning AY 2024-2025, the annual replenishment is 21M. This amount is more than the medical expenditures based on data provided by USTFU, which is only 10M. Even with the increase in hospitalization benefits to Php150,000 and the addition of the critical illness benefit, the annual budget of 21M is deemed sufficient,” she added.
According to Peralta, actions to restore the fund will also be put into place if data indicate that the funds designated for hospitalization are being used up more quickly than expected. F
