RENEGOTIATIONS between the University of Santo Tomas Faculty Union (USTFU) and the UST management panel reached a quick conclusion, with salary increases and higher benefits for staff covering Academic Years (AY) 2024–2025 and 2025–2026.
Under the deal for the final two years of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA), both sides agreed to a baseline salary increase of 1.31% for AY 2024–2025 and 1.81% for AY 2025–2026.
“The conclusion of the negotiations is both unprecedented and [historic]. This is because for the first time, the completion of the negotiations is on time, that is, it is within the 2021-2026 period,” the parties said in a joint statement released on Friday, May 22.
“We believe that the timely conclusion of the 2021-2026 CBA is due to the eagerness of both panels to foster the spirit of synodality each time they meet and to embrace the values of cordiality, respect, [and] prudence in words and actions,” they added.
USTFU and the UST administration held talks from April 24 to May 15, and signed a memorandum of agreement on May 22.
Under the deal, the base salary for NSTP facilitators was capped at the Instructor 2 level’s 100% compensation, and their honorarium was increased to P3,000 from P2,000 per term.
Also included was a mental health leave, allowing academic staff to take five days off when mental health concerns arise.
The eyeglass benefit was increased to P8,000 from P2,500, sourced from USTFU’s hospitalization fund. Medical cash support for dependents was likewise increased to P4,000 from P3,000 per annum.
The St. Thomas Day and USTFU Day bonuses were raised to P3,000 from P2,500.
Full-time academic staff may avail themselves of the University’s one-time technology support of P10,000, while part-time academic staff may get a subsidy of P5,000.
‘Very different’
Every five years, employers enter into negotiations with unionized workers through a CBA to set the terms and conditions of employment, including salaries, benefits, and working hours.
In 2025, the administration and union negotiators reached a deadlock following a disagreement over hospitalization and a proposed P17-million salary restructuring for some faculty members.
Disagreements escalated into an industrial dispute in March 2025, when USTFU filed a strike notice with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.
But in June 2025, faculty members ratified a new salary and benefits agreement, including hospital coverage and a P220-million share in tuition increases from AY’s 2021–2022 and 2023–2024.
In the final stretch of the renegotiation, the management panel was chaired by Education Dean Pilar Romero, replacing Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Cheryl Peralta.
In an earlier interview with the Varsitarian, Romero described the negotiation as “very different,” in which both panels would not be treated as “conflicting panels, but panels that are united by our common service to the University and to the faculty members.”
“Because from the start, we have agreed in the panel that it will not be so much a negotiation, but a dialogue that is forged in synodality,” she said.
“The response of the management is always anchored on good will, what is good, what is best for our academic staff and what the University truly envisions for them. That they will have a life of dignity and a life of dedication also to the University,” she added.
The union panel was chaired by Asst. Prof. Emerito Gonzales, who was reelected USTFU president in the April 2026 USTFU elections. With reports from Yuvshenka Andrea R. Osea
