THE president of Xavier University said on Wednesday, November 16, falling revenues due to the unintended effects of the K to 12 program has prompted the university to cancel the giving out of Christmas bonuses for employees and gratuities for 2016.
"Xavier University has experienced unprecedented losses for the past school years. As I have explained in the memorandum, for the school year 2014 to 2015 we had almost P160 million net losses followed by almost P90 million net losses for school year 2015 to 2016. With this, the University does not really have anywhere to take the Christmas gratuity from," Fr. Roberto Yap, S.J., said.
Yap said the loss of the school's net income is largely due to the decrease in the influx of students because of the shift to the K-12 education curriculum.
"The highest enrollment of students happened on the school year 2010-2011 wherein a total of 16,313 students were accepted to XU. After which, the employees were able to receive P10, 500 for 2011 and P11, 500 for 2012. However, since for example the number of students taking nursing decreased, the earnings of the university coming from the tuition fees will also decrease.
In addition there is the K-12 educational systems wherein now, we do not have first years, for the next there will be no sophomores then juniors then seniors. This affects the income of the University and its ability to provide Christmas cash gifts to employees," Yap explained.
Last year, school year 2015-2016, Xavier University was only able to admit 14,729 while for this year they have only admitted a total of 13,729.
Yap said that since the 16,313 number of students in the school year 2010-2011, their student population has decreased until it reached the present number.
Yap said another reason was that for the past few years, there has been a shift in the course choices of students.
Yap added the Christmas gift is largely dependent on the net income or the excess of revenue over expenses of the school operations.
On Tuesday, Xavier University Non-Teaching Labor Union (Xuntelo) initiated a series of peaceful demonstrations against Xavier University to oppose the said school administration's discontinuation in granting Christmas cash gifts.
The Xuntelo coordinated with the Alliance of Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) to organize the demonstration and a labor strike on November 22 at the Magsaysay Park in front of the Xavier University campus.
Yap, however, argued that the issuing of Christmas cash gifts to employees is a voluntary act from the administration.
Yap said the university tries hard to comply with the demand of the non-teaching employees saying that they have already adjusted some budgets to be able to give P1,800 after the last hearings with the National Conciliation Mediation Board.
The university president calls on the employees, both non-teaching and teaching, to bear with the situation saying that with hard work, the university will be able to recover its losses and normalize everything by school year 2020-2021.
"I want them to know that the University is trying hard to take good care of them. We have retained other privileges due to employees like subsidies in their children's tuition in all levels. I am just asking that they try to understand what is happening and instead of having demonstrations and strikes which can then be bad for the school's image, maybe we could all help out in drawing more students to the school so that we could enjoy the benefits," Yap said.
"Receiving cash gratuities or cash gifts during Christmas is one of the benefits of the employees for working in the University. This practice has been done by the Xavier University for about 20 years now, so stopping this just now is against the law. By not granting Christmas gratuities to them now is a violation of Article 100 of the Labor Code or the prohibition against elimination or diminution of benefits," said Nicandro Borja, ALU-TUCP vice president for Northern Mindanao and the representative of XUNTELU said.
Xuntelu tried to negotiate with XU and demanded P5,000 worth of Christmas gratuity.
After initial hearings, the University has granted P1,000 for each employee and then raised it to P1,800.
The Christmas cash gratuity by XU is a long time benefit that has ripened into a privilege or a permanent benefit that cannot just be withdrawn or stopped otherwise it would be a diminution of benefit, Xuntelu statement noted.
"Xavier University has retained earnings and savings from its previous years of operations. What Xuntelu is trying to ask from them is not a very big thing. If you total the amount that will be spent for the employees' Christmas bonus, it won't really go beyond one million more or less," Borja said.
Xuntelu assures that their labor strike will comply with the conditions and requirements of the law when staging a strike. Borja added that since the cancellation of the granting of the Christmas cash gift affects all XU employees, he asks that the teaching employees of the university, which has another union, also coordinate with them about the movement.
"Since the fruit of this movement will also benefit them, I hope that they will also step-up and join us with the demonstrations," he said.
Xuntelu, composed of at least 200 non-teaching employees of Xavier University, forwarded their complaint to the ALU-TUCP which then introduced the matter to NCMB.
After four hearings between officials and representatives coming from Xuntelu, ALU-TUCP and the NCMB, the labor union was disappointed with the outcome. Xuntelu elected to have a labor strike on November 22.