AUPWU Manila, VCA Holds Dialogue Re: Casuals, Representation Issues

The All UP Workers Union Manila and the Vice Chancellor for Administration Dr. Arlene A. Samañiego holds a dialogue today at around 9:00 AM regarding the status of casuals in the the U.P. Manila's Central Administration, the Academic Units and the National Institutes of Health and on representation right of the union.

The following issues/measures were clarified/agreed upon:

1. All casuals in the campus will be given a one (1) month renewal appointment for the month of January 2005 only as a temporary measure to have a continuous service of all casuals (without gap in service) while the National Budget and or a 2005 Internal Operating Budget has not been approved. Meanwhile all units will be enjoined to already prepare for budget clearance, the five (5) month appointments (February - June 2005) of all casuals under them.
2. There will be no termination that would happen during the transition period except with cause, such as those serving their respective administrative penalties and with unsatisfactory performance evaluation. On such cases, it is understood that the casual concerned had already been forwarned in advance of non-renewal of appointment.
3. All casuals were normally given with six (6) months appointments.
4. The Administration will renew the representation right of the union in the Advisory Board of the UP Manila Creche and Learning center.
5. The representation right of the union on all other committees related to employees welfare and benefits in which it was not yet given such right will be looked into by the Vice Chancellor, such as the Personnel Effectiveness Audit Committee, the UP Manila committee in-charge of studying the implementation of DBM Circular 2004-3 (Conversion of Positions Performing Staff/Non-Technical Functions; and other similar committees.
   
   Months earlier, the chapter had already allerted the National Executive Board on the existence and on-going work of such committee that exist at the UP System but without even consulting the union as embodied in our CNA.
6. The union seeks to have representation on such committees in order to advance the interest of the rank-and-file administrative employees even in the formulation of internal guidelines in our campus especially on the fact tha the government will be using such Circular/s to retrench employees; or euphemistically - streamline the bureaucracy.
   
   Our previous blogs already expresses the union's position on such "double speak" by the government under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

New Features Added on our Web Log Pages

Beginning today, December 13, 2004, we have added a chatter box at our web log pages: "The UP Workers" and "Sa Ospital ng Bayan" (URL: http://aupwu.blogspot.com and http://aupwumla.blogspot.com, respectively). This is to encourage our constituency in the hospital, the constituent university and the UP System to post their comments, reactions or suggestions online. And also as a mean for online chatting.

Words of caution though: "Please limit your chat topics to work-related and union-related issues."

The chat box maybe found near the counter box at of the default page of each wep log pages, at the left narrow module for "The UP Workers" and at the right narrow module for the "Sa Ospital ng Bayan."

It also include provisions for universal reosurce locator (url) for our constituents who have their own web pages, web logs, xanga, etc., by which the union may respond to their queries and comments or simply we may able to know them better by visiting thier own web sites.