by Ranjie Nocete | May 12, 2022
After a process of negotiations, the Silliman University Faculty Association (SUFA) and Administration signed the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) covering the years 2021-2026, while the 2019 deadlock remained unresolved and still under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor and Employment.
According to SUFA, copies of the new CBA are available already for faculty members to claim at the elementary department’s library.
With the new CBA, SUFA President Mark Te shared that they still went through a “notice of strike”. He said that they tried to get the administration to “understand the current situation of our academic personnel” as the basic salary remained the same in 2019.
The approved 2021-2026 negotiations included an “across-the-board increase” in basic salary, which states a Php600 increase per month effective June 1, 2021, Php1,400 increase per month effective June 1, 2022, and Php900 increase per month effective June 1, 2023.
Another negotiation approved was the yearly rice subsidy. The faculty will receive P1,000 in the first year, an additional P1,000 in the second year, and another additional P1,000 in the next, making a total of P3,000 for the three years.
SUFA also negotiated a monthly instructional IT subsidy of Php1,000 for all full-time academic personnel from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2022.
Te explained that the rationale behind the one-year IT subsidy was that the school will be going back to face-to-face classes soon.
Meanwhile, Te shared that they received a CBA contract signing bonus wherein Php =6,000 was given to each full-time faculty member for the first time.
Other negotiations approved were better maternity and paternity benefits, with mothers allowed to go back to work on the 91st day of their leave and fathers allowed to go on leave for nine days instead of only seven.
There was also an improvement in the merit increase and school privilege for single faculty members and those married without any child. These faculty members can now designate two beneficiaries to a senior high diploma and an undergraduate degree.
The final requirement for these negotiations to be implemented is the ratification of all academic personnel. The signing happened on April 11, with 258 votes approving the CBA.
Te pointed out that the said benefits will be “adjusted accordingly upon resolution of the 2019 Assumption of Jurisdiction.”
He said that SUFA will “go back to the negotiation table” in the remaining two years of the CBA.
“I wish it could have been more of course… But somehow, since it’s a negotiation, you have to ask it from the other party so it’s something that both parties agree to. We hope that it goes a long way to help the current situation of our faculty members, of our academic personnel,” he ended.
