A TOTAL OF 30 probationary teachers from Cebu City public schools who filed complaints for delayed salaries, bonuses and incentives last week finally received their compensation.
Salustiano Jimenez, director of the Department of Education (DepEd) 7, told SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, that the teachers received their cash on Dec. 23.
The teachers went to the DepEd 7 office on the same day after failing to receive their wages for the months of November and December.
The complainants feared that they might not be able to prepare something to celebrate Christmas.
“When I checked, it was already addressed because, at that time, their (probationary teachers) salary was already in the bank. So, at night, during the time when I followed up, it was already credited to their bank accounts,” said Jimenez.
Not the first time
The teachers said the delay was not the first time. They said there were times when they had to wait for two months.
Jimenez admitted that the salary of probationary teachers is slightly delayed compared to those of regular ones.
He said regular teachers receive their salaries and other bonuses directly through their Automated Teller Machine cards, as they are already part of DepEd’s automatic payroll deduction system.
On the other hand, probationary teachers must submit their Daily Time Records (DTRs) at the end of the month and a separate payroll has to be created for them.
Another factor for delays are holidays, which affect the probationary teachers’ submission of DTRs, he said.
“In their case, for the month of November, specifically Nov. 1 and 2, we did not have work. So they had to submit their DTRs between Nov. 3, 4, or 5. DTRs also needed to be submitted together, not one by one,” said Jimenez.
“It might be that one or two teachers were unable to submit their DTRs on time. So, it was reported that their money was processed already during the second week of December. Then, it was forwarded to the bank around Dec. 21. With the process of the bank, it was released 24 hours after,” he said.
He said regular teachers usually receive their monthly pay around the 19th or 20th day of the month.
According to DepEd 7’s data, Central Visayas has around 77,000 teaching personnel, with around 20,000 working as public school teachers.
Jimenez could not provide exact figures on the number of public probationary teachers, but he said there are more than 30.