STUDENT-LED groups have criticized UST’s stance amid a stalled collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with unionized faculty, accusing the University of withholding teachers’ benefits.
The groups claimed that UST was unjustly benefitting from tuition increases and using consultations with students as a shield against the distribution of the faculty’s legally mandated 70% share in yearly tuition hikes.
“At the very least, we expect 70% of our tuition — as mandated by current CHEd (Commission on Higher Education) regulations — are being directed to our academic personnel,” the statement read.
“However, the ongoing CBA negotiations have made it very transparent that our [faculty] are not receiving their rightful share,” it said.
The statement was signed by Anakbayan UST, Lakas-LOOB Political Party, League of Filipino Students UST, Panday Sining UST, and Kabataan Partylist UST.
By law, 70% of tuition increases must go to the salaries and benefits of teaching and non-teaching staff.
UST and the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) are locked in an industrial dispute after the union declared a deadlock in talks for a new CBA covering salary and benefits for 2021-2026 on March 14. USTFU filed a notice of strike on March 25.
The deadlock is over two key issues — funding for a P26-million rank upgrade and salary restructuring and hospitalization benefits.
READ: EXPLAINER: Why UST faculty, admin are at odds over P26-million salary restructuring fund
UST wants the P26-million rank upgrade and salary restructuring to be shouldered by the faculty’s 70% share.
USTFU however wants the 70% share, amounting to P246 million since August 2020, distributed across the board, arguing that rank upgrades for specific faculty members are promotions and part of management prerogative.
The faculty also wants full hospitalization benefits at UST Hospital, while UST offered to hike the hospitalization benefit by P50,000 to P150,000 and grant a P300,000 critical illness.
UST has insisted that the 6% tuition increase implemented in Academic Year 2023-2024 had been earmarked specifically for salary restructuring.
The administration has also said it would be difficult to walk back on this scheme as it was used to justify the 6% hike in a consultation with student leaders in 2022.
The student groups urged Thomasians to stand with the UST faculty amid the labor dispute.
“The fight of our teachers for better wages and benefits is a reflection of the same system that burdens students with unjust tuition fee increases while refusing to be transparent,” they said.
“The political and economic struggle inside UST outlines the need to resist a system that prioritizes profit over people,” the groups said.
