Teachers group in Central Luzon urges Comelec to pay overtime for BSKE duty

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) chapter in Central Luzon appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday to provide poll workers overtime pay for their extended work hours during the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE). 

Filing a demand letter to the Comelec, ACT Region III union president Mathew Santiago said some teachers even had to extend working for more than 24 hours in order to finish their election-related tasks. 

“Pagod, puyat, at maging seguridad at kaligtasan ang ipinuhunan ng mga guro upang maitaguyod ang halalan. Tayong mga guro ang tumangan ng tungkuling ito para sa bayan kaya marapat lang na suklian ito ng sapat at makatwirang kompensasyon,” he said. 

(Teachers toiled, did not rest and even placed themselves at risk for the sake of the election. We the teachers were the ones who fulfilled this duty for the people, so it is only appropriate to reciprocate their efforts with adequate and reasonable compensation.) 

Santiago also stressed the need to set humane working hours for individuals who would render election services. 

“Nais din nating bigyang-diin na mahalaga pa ring magtakda ng makataong oras sa pagsisilbi sa eleksyon, at maamyendahan ito sa Election Service Reform Act upang mas mapabuti at masiguro ang kalagayan sa paggawa ng mga guro tuwing halalan.) 

(We also want to emphasize the importance of setting a humane time while serving for an election, and this can be amended in the Election Service Reform Act to better improve and ensure the working conditions of teachers during the polls.) 

For the Comelec’s part, chairman George Garcia committed that the commission will push for the teachers’ overtime pay for the BSKE but pointed out the final decision lie with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA). 

“Sususugan po natin ang overtime pay para sa mga guro. Subalit hindi po sa amin nakadepende ito. Sa DBM at COA. Hindi po kami binigyan ng budget para dito at hindi rin pinapayagan ng umiiral na patakaran ang pagbibigay ng overtime sa mga hindi empleyado ng ahensya. Sana mabago ito,” he told GMA News Online. 

(We will push for overtime pay for teachers. But it does not depend on us. It’s up to the DBM and COA. We were not given a budget for this and the existing policy does not allow overtime to be given to non-employees of the agency. I hope this can be remedied.) 

ACT also reiterated for the removal of the tax from the honoraria that poll workers would be receiving for their service during the BSKE. 

The Comelec said the BSKE chairman and electoral board members would receive P10,000 and P9,000 of honoraria, respectively. This is an increase from the previous P6,000 and P5,000 granted to them.

As of November 11, the Comelec said that 99% of the electoral boards, supervising officers and support staff from the Department of Education (DepEd) have received their intended BSKE honoraria.