The faculty union is set to vote on whether to ratify the 2021-2026 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) after a more than three-year delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and negotiation deadlocks.
In an announcement released to faculty members, the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) said it would conduct an online voting from June 9 to 10 on the ratification of the newly-proposed CBA, which covers full hospitalization benefits for academic staff as well as rank upgrades and salary restructuring funded by the faculty’s tuition hike shares.
“The tenured and the probationary union members will vote either Yes, or No to Ratify the whole CBA. Never by part or provision,” USTFU president Asst. Prof. Emerito Gonzales told The Flame.
The 2021-2026 CBA was signed by panel negotiators from UST management and USTFU on May 30.
The signing came a week after some of the CBA provisions were finalized as agreed upon during the final meeting among the faculty union, UST administration and the labor department’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board.
Negotiations for the CBA were stalled after pandemic lockdowns had prevented meetings between the University and the faculty union. Initial talks began in March 2024 and was followed by a series of disagreements between the two parties, resulting in multiple deadlock declarations and a strike notice filed by the faculty union on March 25.
With the signing of the deal, faculty members will receive their tuition hike shares for academic years 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 amounting to P220 million.
The academic staff previously received their P21.8 million worth of tuition hike shares for the academic year 2020-2021 that was covered by the previous CBA cycle.
The signed CBA includes the union’s proposal for full hospitalization at the UST Hospital, which will be put under trial for two years. The medical coverage would revert back to the UST management’s initial proposal of P150,000 for regular illnesses and P350,000 for critical cases if the expenses exceed the yearly P21 million cap.
If the new CBA is ratified, the arrangement would replace the initial P100,000 annual medical coverage for faculty members, a provision the University has been implementing for two decades.
Also among the agreed-upon provisions is the teaching staff’s rank upgrades and senior high school salary restructuring, whose funding will be initially sourced from the faculty’s tuition hike shares from the academic year 2021-2024. The University will fund future salary increases from sources outside the faculty’s shares.
The provision was previously among the highly-contested points of the CBA, with the faculty union pushing for funding outside the tuition increase collections. The University said that the 6% tuition increase in the academic year 2021-2024 was intended to fund rank upgrades and allocating the amount to other purposes would undermine the trust of students and their families.
An online general assembly will be held earlier on the first day of the voting period to accommodate questions and clarifications from faculty members regarding the CBA, USTFU said.
Each faculty member will receive a copy of the proposed CBA by Monday, June 2, while printed copies will be posted in different faculty rooms in the University, it added. F
