MAJOR DIFFERENCES persist between the University management and UST Faculty Union (USTFU) as they disagreed on the allocation and distribution of the staff’s legally mandated tuition hike shares during their penultimate conciliation-mediation meeting on April 29.
Despite compromises on some proposals, both parties still clashed over the faculty union’s crucial demands on hospitalization benefits, the contentious release of the faculty members’ cut in tuition increases accumulated from 2021 to 2024 and the source for rank upgrades, according to USTFU’s summary of the negotiations.
The union requested that only 50% of the faculty rank upgrades worth P26 million be charged to their portion of the tuition hike funds, as opposed to its previous calls for 100% to be sourced from the UST treasury. It also pushed that the senior high school salary restructuring with a P10.5 million option.
In an updated offer, the UST administration proposed that the 2023-2024 rank upgrade be sourced from the shares collected thus far but succeeding rank upgrades would no longer be charged to tuition hike proceeds. Meanwhile, the “unused” funds would be “distributed as a one-time bonus for all academic staff.”
For months, the faculty union has also been clamoring for the “immediate release” of its shares of tuition increases from academic years 2020-2024.
During the meeting, both parties finally settled on the terms for the distribution of the recalculated P27.8 million excess in tuition hikes from 2020-2021, which is covered by the previous CBA cycle.
Of the total, P6 million will replenish the hospitalization fund upon the current CBA’s ratification. For the distribution of the remaining P21.8 million, 1.31% will be allocated for all staff, an additional 0.3% for non-teaching staff and 1.31% for the National Service Training Program (NSTP) to be taken from the program’s fund.
However, the University stood firm on its previous stance that the rest of the unreleased tuition hike proceeds to date (P51.45 million for 2021-2022; P63.22 million in 2022-2023; and P104.68 million for 2023-2024) would only be distributed once the CBA is finalized.
USTFU also stood by its call for 100% hospitalization benefits, now exclusive to the University hospital. However, the management retained its previous offer of a P150,000 base benefit and P300,000 for critical illness.
The Dominican-run institution also reportedly included a P5 million one-time grant to replenish the hospitalization fund, which will not be charged to the faculty’s tuition hike shares.
The only item both parties agreed on during the latest meeting was an additional two-day vacation leave for non-teaching staff.
All of the University management’s offers come as a “package,” the faculty union said. It also said that “items not specified are dropped,” alluding to the rejection of USTFU’s other requests, such as a Christmas bonus raise, unused sick leave extension, and junior high school teachers’ compensated time off.
Talks at a ‘crucial stage’
USTFU president Asst. Prof. Emerito Gonzales explained that the faculty union could only provide the key points of the discussions to ensure accuracy and to “avoid misinterpretation” of the information they release.
In a letter addressed to USTFU members dated May 4, Gonzales said electronic recording was prohibited during the negotiations facilitated by the labor department’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board (DOLE-NCMB).
Furthermore, the board used the “shuttle method,” wherein the management and union’s CBA panels are separated into different rooms and only a DOLE-NCMB arbiter could relay messages between both parties.
“By relying only on the statements of the arbiter, many thoughts and meanings are ‘lost in translation’ so to speak; and the parties need to crosscheck with each other and it takes a while,” Gonzales, also the chair of the USTFU panel, said.
There have been five conciliation meetings since the USTFU filed its strike notice in late March. The final dialogue will take place on May 6 at the DOLE office in Intramuros, Manila, after which “more comprehensive information” would be provided, Gonzales said. F
