A LAWMAKER has called on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to review its 17-year-old manual for academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs), saying its provision on probationary period contradicts the country’s labor code and denies academic personnel of their rights and benefits.
Kamanggagawa Partylist Rep. Elijah San Fernando said CHED’s 2008 Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education (MORPHE) has been delaying the academic staff’s enjoyment of full rights and benefits through an imposed three-year probationary period. The regulation does not align with the six-month probationary period set by the labor department, he added.
“According to the law, within and not over six months, on the 180th day of your employment under a probationary status, there should already be a decision for you to become a regular [employee]. If not, there should be metrics,” San Fernando told The Flame.
“It (MORPHE) is just a circular memo by the CHED. It means that it’s just the agency, the department. [B]ut the problem is, again, this is a circular coming from a department [and] the circular cannot be above what is written in the law…CHED admitted that this particular memorandum order has superseded what is stated in the labor code,” he added.
Under Section 117 of MORPHE, a teaching personnel should undergo a three-year or six-semester probationary period for tenureship, in which a contract is renewed per term until six consecutive semesters are completed.
San Fernando said the requirement falls in conflict with Article 296 of the Philippine Labor Code, which states that “probationary employment shall not exceed six months from the date the employee started working, unless it is covered by an apprenticeship agreement stipulating a longer period.”
‘Injustice’ to academic staff
According to San Fernando, MORPHE is often used by some institutions against academic staff to delay regularization, treating them instead as “contractual” workers.
“The teaching personnel are not being made regular so that they are not compelled or not given by the higher education institution, private higher education institution, the full rights and benefits that should be enjoyed and obtained by a regular worker,” San Fernando said.
He claimed that the impact of the three-year probationary period does not cover the academic staff alone, but extends to the quality of education in private schools. Some teaching personnel, San Fernando explained, may look for additional jobs to compensate for the lack of benefits, hindering them from exerting their full ability as academic staff.
The Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (CoTeSCUP), a coalition of academic and non-academic personnel unions and associations in private schools, echoed the sentiments, saying the probationary period provided under MORPHE places educators at risk of sudden non-renewal.
“The University of Santo Tomas, like most private higher education institutions, follows CHED’s MORPHE which imposes a three-year or six-semester probationary period for teaching personnel,” CoTeSCUP president and UST Philosophy Assoc. Prof. Rene Luis Tadle told The Flame.
“MORPHE forces private school teachers into a prolonged probation of three years, with contracts renewed only per semester or trimester. This leaves teachers vulnerable to sudden non-renewal even if they are qualified and performing well.”
According to Tadle, educators in the University are issued semestral contracts that are renewed term by term until they complete six consecutive semesters.
“This is in addition to having a required Master’s degree, necessary licenses, and rendering satisfactory service,” he added.
Under UST’s current collective bargaining agreement, one of the requisites for the tenurial appointment of probationary teachers is for them to have served as a full-time academic staff for six consecutive regular terms.
Teaching and non-teaching personnel may apply for early tenureship through the unit head. They should have rendered two consecutive years and have achieved a “very satisfactory competence evaluation” for four terms from all evaluating sectors.
Tadle said the coalition is preparing legislative proposals and mobilizing unions nationwide to push for reforms in the MORPHE.
“Our goal is to align CHED’s rules with labor law and protect both teachers’ rights and students’ education,” Tadle said.
The Kamanggagawa party-list is planning to file a resolution seeking an inquiry into the implementation of MORPHE. F
