Guidelines for teachers’ unions in deep freeze

THE government continues to deprive public school teachers of rightful economic and non-economic benefits with the non-issuance of the guidelines on the registration and accreditation of public school teachers’ group under the Department of Education (DepEd).

“We all know that teachers are overworked, underpaid. Why must two administrations, from Pres. Arroyo to Pres. Aquino, continue to deprive them of their Constitutional right to self-organization? Four years have passed and the guidelines are still pending. This is absurd, outrageous, and unacceptable.” ACT Teachers Party-List Representative Antonio L. Tinio said.

The non-issuance of the guidelines was discovered due to the insistent questioning of Tinio during the Committee on Appropriations hearing for Civil Service Commission (CSC).

Tinio pointed out that the Public Sector Labor-Management Council (PSLMC), chaired by the CSC head has failed to issue the guidelines four years after it first took up the issue.

He said that due to the absence of these guidelines, the CSC has suspended the accreditation of duly registered public school teachers’ unions since 2007.

Tinio cited the Article 13 Section 3 of the Philippine Constitution, stressing on the state’s duty to “guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiation”. –SAMMY MARTIN, Manila Times