UP employees clinch benefits, representation

UP employees clinch benefits, representation

ni Richard Jacob Dy

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After nearly two years of negotiation, two new agreements for working benefits and representation were signed for some 14,000 academic and non-academic employees last December 12.

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The All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) and All UP Workers Union (AUPWU), the exclusive negotiating units for the faculty and research, extension and professional staff (REPS) and administrative staff, respectively, signed separate five-year collective negotiation agreements (CNA) with the UP administration.

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To ratify their agreements, majority of about 5,000 academic personnel and of 9,000 administrative staff must sign it until the end of January, said Melania Lagahit Abad, AUPAEU secretary-general.

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Both agreements contain provisions on free medical examination and vaccination, nursing leave, union time privilege, and annual benefits like P1,000-grocery allowance, P1,000-loyalty pay and P4,500-rice subsidy.
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Union representation in committees on occupational health and safety, employee suggestion and incentive awards, and performance evaluation review were also agreed upon for both administrative staff, and faculty and REPS.

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AUPAEU National President Erlinda Palaganas said the long-negotiated agreements are victory of UP employees. “Kahit hindi man nakamtan ang lahat ng gusto ng [mga unyon], substantial pa rin ang agreement[s]…,” she added.
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After the ratification of the CNAs, each UP employee will get a P10,000-signing incentive which will come from the university’s savings, UP President Emerlinda Roman said. “I hope the employees realize that we are allocating as much as we can for their welfare,” she added.
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Lack of tenure security
According to Abad, while collective agreements should promote maximum employee representation in committees which concerns the faculty and REPS, their current CNA does not include a system-wide union representation to the Academic Personnel Fellowship Committee (APFC), the mediating body between academic employees and the Board of Regents which discusses faculty hirings, promotions and salaries.
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She added that the lack of APFC representation also results in lack of transparency on granting tenures to faculty members, as in the case of sociology professor Sarah Raymundo, whose tenure was denied by her department despite serving in the university for almost a decade.

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Abad also said that the welfare of newly-hired faculty and some lecturers who have been demoted after they were not granted tenures might be less protected since they are not included in the academic workers’ CNA. She added that the lecturers also deserve what bargaining academic employees benefit from the agreement.

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Meanwhile, Jossel Ebesate, AUPWU national vice president, said the non-academic employees’ CNA does not provide for health insurance and rights such as the prerogative for administrative personnel to decline forced transfer from one UP unit to another.
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Based on the new agreements, further discussions and amendments concerning the CNA and employee welfare shall be discussed in union-management monitoring committees, which will maintain “continuous lines of communication, consultation and dialogue between the [UP administration] and the union” every six months.