(UPDATED March 11, 2025)
FACULTY MEMBERS of the UST Senior High School (SHS) have decried the alleged drastic cut in their salary upgrade, calling for a “no” vote on the UST administration’s final collective bargaining agreement (CBA) offer.
In a statement ahead of the March 10 vote, the Faculty Association of Senior High School (FASHS) lamented how SHS faculty members were shortchanged.
It was referring to the UST administration’s initial proposal of a P10.5-million allocation for SHS faculty salary upgrades. This amount was allegedly slashed to P5.5 million and then further reduced to P1.5 million.
UST Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Cheryl Peralta, who heads the UST administration panel to the CBA talks, however said it was the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) panel that “refused the allocation for SHS faculty salary upgrades altogether and proposed removing it.”
“To preserve some allocation for SHS academic staff, the Management Panel settled on the Php1.5 million proposal, assuming this would be the option ultimately approved,” Peralta wrote in a March 11 letter to the Varsitarian clarifying “inaccurate” reports on the bargaining talks.
“Moreover, any approved salary increase for SHS academic staff will be IN ADDITION TO the 8.489% salary increase and benefits improvement from AY 2020-2021 to AY 2023-2024 granted to all academic staff.”
“Framing the P1.5 million figure as a unilateral ‘85% reduction’ without this critical context misrepresents the reality of the negotiation process,” Peralta said.
The SHS faculty group said in its March 9 statement it was pushing for equality and what had been promised to the teachers.
“We have always believed that negotiations are meant to secure the best possible outcome for those we represent. But what happened here? Instead of fighting for what is fair and justified, we have somehow ended up bargaining for the least,” the FASHS wrote in a statement.
“[It] was not about getting more than others — it was about addressing an imbalance that had already existed for years,” it added. “We are not asking for more than what is fair. We are simply asking for what was already promised.”
The initial P10.5-million allocation, the FASHS said, came from the UST administration and was meant to be sourced from teachers’ tuition hike shares for Academic Year 2023 to 2024. The amount was “not arbitrarily requested” but was extensively discussed and justified, it added.
By law, 70% of tuition increases must go to salaries of faculty and staff.
When divided among the units the 230 SHS faculty members handle, the P1.5 million would “not even merit the price of one kilo of rice,” and was “not even enough to cover daily transportation.”
“[F]or some, the reality is even worse — they will receive nothing at all since, for the longest time, salary adjustments have been distributed based on ranking. The lower your rank, the less likely you are to receive anything,” it said.
“Our unit may be new to the University, but our faculty deserve better.”
While acknowledging the uncertainty of a “no” vote — which would signal support for a deadlock in CBA negotiations — the group said rejecting the offer would send a clear message that faculty members “do not simply accept what is easiest at the cost of fairness.”
Voting “yes,” it argued, would signal agreement that “SHS faculty deserves no more than what is being offered.”
“We are being asked to choose between two equally unfavorable options,” it said. “Either way, we stand to lose.”
“We are not asking for special treatment. We only ask to be seen, to be heard, and to be valued just as much as any other academic unit in this institution,” it said. “We stand not in defiance, but rather in the belief that just compensation is not a privilege; it is a right.”
‘Teachers’ rights are non-negotiable’
On March 9, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Private Schools, a movement of teachers from schools around the University Belt, released a statement accusing UST of “undermining the rightful demands of its faculty” in the CBA negotiations.
It urged the UST administration to uphold its Catholic values by bargaining in good faith.
“We urge the UST administration to truly embody the values of Catholic education — not just through words, but through actions — by respecting the dignity of its educators,” the statement read. “This includes engaging in good faith negotiations by returning to the negotiating table and reconsidering the essential demands of its faculty.”
UST faculty and administration representatives have been negotiating the 2021-2026 CBA for a year. While they have reached agreements on some provisions, a final deal has yet to be secured due to disagreements over salary upgrades and hospitalization benefits.
About 1,400 faculty members will decide on March 10 whether to settle for the UST administration’s final offer or declare a deadlock, potentially summoning government intervention and opening the possibility of a strike or lockout.
