Teachers want maximum service credit limit removed

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) called on the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday to remove the 15-day maximum service credit limit it is imposing for teachers who render service beyond regular workdays.

ACT chairperson Vladimer Quetua said many of their teacher-members have been reporting that the service credits they incurred are not being honored by DepEd if these go beyond 15 days.

“The hard work of our teachers is being put to waste. This is an important issue especially as the DepEd intends to hold a National Learning Camp, which falls on the vacation of teachers,” Quetua said in a statement in Filipino.

“We hope that the time and efforts our teachers will give for this program (National Learning Camp) will be repaid with just compensation and corresponding service credits,” he added.

Section 9 of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular No. 41 s. 1998 grants service credit to teachers for the days they are required to work outside of regular workdays, which can be used to offset their absences.

But DepEd Order No. 53 s. 2003 also provides that the number of vacation service credits granted to a teacher shall not exceed 15 workdays in one year.

“It is unfair to limit to 15 days the counted service credits when teachers rendered works beyond 15 days, outside their regular workdays. We are talking here about actual work rendered, which must be compensated,” Quetua said.

He said there must also be a 25 percent overtime premium or equivalent to 1.25 days of service credit for each day that teachers will be required to work beyond the regular workdays in a school year.

Their group, he added, would not allow a repeat of the incident in school year 2020-2021 wherein 77 days of service credits and 25 percent overtime premium of teachers were not paid.

“We reiterate our demand for
DepEd, CSC, and DBM (Department of Budget and Management) to urgently scrap the 15-day service credit limit. For this year alone, many teachers complained that many of their hard-earned credits are not honored because of the cap currently imposed. This is a (type) of scam, teachers were told that their extra work is to be compensated but at the end of the year, it will not be honored,” Quetua said.

“We have long been neglected by this government by way of low salaries and poor and delayed benefits, it’s about time you properly remunerate us for our services,” he added.