Gamilla says CBA security clause safe

UST FACULTY Union (USTFU) president Dr. Gil Gamilla allayed fears that the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) endangers the security of tenure of teachers because of a clause that allows the University to dismiss teachers.

“Only those who have done wrong or intending to do wrong are the ones who should be afraid of their security of tenure,” Dr. Gamilla said in response to the old USTFU’s statement that the security clause of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) endangers the security of tenure of faculty members.

The old USTFU is headed by deposed union president Atty. Eduardo Mariño, who, with his fellow union officers, are accused of mishandling of funds during the 1996-2000 CBA.

In a newsletter released a week before the Dec. 14 signing of the new CBA 2001-2006, the old USTFU camp stated that the security clause would give the University a ground to dismiss a faculty member from his or her employment other than the valid or authorized causes enumerated in the Labor Code.

According to Art. III, Sec. 3 of the new CBA, “The University, upon written request of the Faculty Union, shall terminate the services of any tenured faculty member who shall fail to fulfill the conditions set forth in Sections 1 and 2 hereof, provided that the University shall be held free and harmless from any liability arising out of such termination for reasons other than those provided in the Constitution and By-Laws of the Faculty Union, and in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Code and its implementing rules and regulations.”

Since the University “shall be held free and harmless from any liability arising out of such termination,” the old USTFU camp claimed that the clause will only “grant the union officers enormous control over the fate of faculty members,” the old USTFU said.

Section 1 states that “faculty members who are members of the Faculty Union on the date of the signing and the effectivity of this agreement shall continue and maintain such membership in the Faculy Union as a condition of their conditinued employment.”

Section 2, on the other hand, states that within one month from the respective dates of their regular status, tenured faculty members shall become part of the Union. Only part-time faculty members may request in writing not to join the Union with the approval of the University and USTFU.

The old USTFU further said that in the new CBA dismissed faculty members would not receive back wages and financial privileges from the University. Thus, the clause would result in lawsuits and destroy industrial peace that the faculty can not afford, it added.

However, in an interview with the Varsitarian, Dr. Gamilla said the statements of the old USTFU were “exaggerated” because they took the clause piece by piece and not as a “whole thing.”

He said that the accusation was false since the dismissal would be “within due process or investigation” and “in accordance with the Labor Code and the constitutions and by laws of the Faculty Union.”

Dr. Gamilla added that the clause was necessary to protect the Union.

“It is just like cancer, kapag tumubo sa katawan ng isang tao, kailangang alisin para hindi kumalat at hindi mamatay ang tao. The same way with the security provision, ‘yung mga gumagawa ng kalokohan against the Union, kailangan alisin,” Gamilla said.

Despite the opposition of the old Union, 1, 228 faculty members ratified the new CBA last Dec. 16. The negotiation for the CBA, which D. Gamilla referred to as a “total overhaul of the old CBA” started last Sept. 26.

The political issues of the agreement provided that department chairs would become administrative officers and faculty club presidents will be part of the faculty council.

In addition, the University can hire clinical faculty, teaching assistants, and substitutes, but they would no longer be allowed to handle classes belonging to regular faculty members.

For school year 2001-2002, the USTFU would have one representative in the Permanent Committee for Faculty Classification (PCFC), the committee evaluating faculty members. During reclassification or promotion, faculty members will evaluate themselves aside from superiors and other faculty members.

Qualified special lecturers or contractual personnel hired prior to 2001, would be allowed to convert to tenure-track or tenured faculty. The new CBA also provided for a new faculty rank.

The resident faculty rank is divided in two. With the required 40 hours a week, the resident faculty I would spend 18 hours for teaching and 22 hours for academic related activities. Resident faculty II would spend six hours for teaching and the rest of the time for research.

Moreover, the new CBA provided a “more faculty-friendly” classification for succeeding schoolyears. The criterion with the highest score, 45 percent, is academic preparation, experience and training while teaching competence and deportment followed with 30 percent. Research and creative works, and community service both received 12.5 percent.

Any disputed decisions on faculty classification will now be appealed to the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and the USTFU president both acting as a collegial body. Billy Joe Allardo and Maria Pacita C. Joson