Talks restart to end strike in university

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— The management and striking teachers and employees of Holy Angel University (HAU) have resumed talks at the level of the Office of the Secretary (Osec) of the Department of Labor and Employment, their first since the strike began on Aug. 15.

In the Aug. 27 mediation facilitated by conciliator Jay Javines, the HAU management said it would give P20.9 million in incremental proceeds, which represented the 70-percent share of personnel from the tuition increase from 2012 to 2013.

But that was on “condition that [the HAU Teachers and Employees Union or Hauteu] withdraws its appeal on the [unfair labor practice] case,” Edna Marizza Santos, HAU head of the negotiating panel, told the Inquirer.

In a separate interview on Sunday, Edmond Maniago, Hauteu president, said the P20.9 million should be “given without condition because the law states that giving incremental proceeds is an obligation of universities.”

Maniago said Hauteu asked the Osec to recompute the incremental proceeds based on the formula provided by the Supreme Court, which is based on the number of academic units enrolled by students.

The unfair labor practice case, Maniago said, should not be withdrawn from the National Labor Relations Commission because this was not related to the source of the deadlock, which was the union’s demand for P5.9 million for its 333 members.

The HAU management also issued an advisory informing its more than 18,000 students that “classes [would be] held as usual inside the university.”

It said only 85 of 676 teachers went on strike.

“We urge our striking faculty not to exert pressure on their students to abandon their classes as a show of support for their cause. Students should never be asked to take sides in a labor dispute,” it said.

Maniago said students have complained of lack of teachers in elementary, high school and colleges. If there were substitutes, he said they were not qualified to teach a subject.

In college, classes are merged for lack of teachers, he said.

Maniago said the salaries and benefits “have not changed in the last 10 years amid the construction frenzy in the university.” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon