MORE than 1,200 faculty members voted “yes” to ratify the 2016-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which provides hikes in salaries and benefits.
Results from the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) Commission on Elections showed that out of the 2,186 who voted last Sept. 14 to 16, 1,232 faculty members ratified the new CBA.
Meanwhile, 204 members voted “no” and 721 abstained or did not cast a vote.
Twelve votes were declared “eligible void” which were votes that disapproved of the CBA and cast using other email accounts, while 17 votes were declared “not eligible void,” which were votes cast by faculty members who were not on the offcial list provided by the Office for Faculty Evaluation and Development.
Out of the 25 faculty clubs, majorities in the College of Nursing and National Service Training Program voted for non-ratification.
The new CBA will provide salary hikes for faculty members regardless of rank. The salary increase per unit is P64.29 for Academic Year (AY) 2017-2018 and P59.82 for AY 2018-2019.
Other benefits like birthday and goodwill bonuses, medical cash allowance, emergency loans, rice in kind and in cash, annual distribution of goods based on years of service, and loyalty gift upon retirement increased compared with the 2011-2016 CBA.
Faculty members will also be given hospitalization and medical assistance, as well as a “pandemic assistance” of P10,000 amid the Covid-19 outbreak apart from the usual signing bonus.
Sacked panel
The new agreement focused only on economic provisions after a poll found majority of more than 700 faculty agreeing to exclude political issues in the new agreement.
The USTFU board had removed CBA negotiators Jose Ngo, Edilberto Gonzaga, Emerito Gonzales, Rebecca Adri and Michelle Desierto and replaced them with new ones.
They were accused of violating confidentiality rules when they publicized their appeal to immediately distribute tuition increases from previous years.
On Sept. 4, four of the five sacked negotiators filed a complaint before the Department of Labor and Employment against the USTFU board, claiming their removal from the panel was illegal and that the new CBA was invalid because the new negotiators were not elected by the general membership.
Voting on the new CBA proceeded despite the labor case, but the USTFU leadership no longer asked the general membership to uphold the removal of the five negotiators.
Decision respected
The five said they respected the results of the voting as it would mean the immediate release of the tuition increases, which they said was one of their top priorities during the negotiations.
“Iginagalang namin ang naging desisyon ng nakararami upang maagap na matanggap ang Tuition Fee Increase na dapat lamang para sa kaguruan […] isa naman ito sa mahalagang naging kampanya natin sa panahon ng negosasyon,” the five ex-CBA panel members said.
“[H]indi tayo nawawalan ng pag-asa na darating ang isang araw na muling marinig ang mga boses na ito sa isang CBA na may matatag na pampulitikang karapatan at ekonomikong benepisyong para sa lahat,” they added.
A CBA is a contract executed between an employer and a labor union that lays down the terms and conditions of employment, such as pay, working hours and benefits.
The 2011-2016 CBA was ratified by the faculty in 2014, after a deadlock was broken through backchannel talks.
