Research, Extension, and Professional Staff (REPS) often feel like second-class citizens in UP, according to Mike Mantala, who researches and develops best practices for the teaching of high school biology at the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development. Often underpaid and shortchanged for promotions, REPS continue to call for greater recognition of their cornerstone role in university excellence.
Among the plans of UP President Angelo Jimenez was an internationalization thrust he first introduced during his campaign for the university’s top post. Last month, he launched a new series of flagship programs as part of the UP Strategic Plan 2023-2029 with one of the items addressed being research and innovation—and some of the most affected will be UP’s own REPS.
Yet extreme subservience to global competition’s dictates deepens present issues for REPS. Amid fanfare for the UP Strategic Plan’s flagship programs, UP REPS are left with scarce opportunities for promotion, consultation, and service-oriented work in the university’s race toward internationalization.
Uphill Climb
REPS, who often work with faculty or in research facilities and laboratories, toil under different work arrangements. Many are UP contractuals on job order or contract of service payrolls, sometimes forced to publish research before being awarded tenure, according to Mantala, who is also vice president for REPS of the All-UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU).
“Marami sa mga kasamahan naming REPS ay ilang taon na ring nagsisilbi sa pamantasan pero hindi napepermanente,” he said.
Beyond tenure, promotion is vital for increasingly qualified REPS to match their skills with fair pay. As of 2018, entry-level REPS in Diliman are paid at least salary grade (SG) 10 starting at P23,176, while the highest-paid not under the scientific career system are at SG 24, which is capped at P100,888.
The Civil Service Commission stipulates that at most five percent of employees in public bodies annually may be horizontally promoted by step increment, or increases in pay within the same salary grade, restricting wage increases. Moreover, they can only be promoted a maximum of eight times before becoming ineligible for further advancement until new positions become available. Even then, only 14 of the 23 eligible slots in Diliman for 2023 were filled, according to Mantala—paling in comparison to a total of over 550 REPS in Diliman.
That not even five percent are horizontally promoted reflects the grueling nature of applications for horizontal promotion, Mantala added. REPS who apply for promotion are required to submit documentary evidence for each accomplished job or project, followed by scrutiny and scoring according to the nature of work completed.
Scoring systems that decide who will be promoted are now point-based instead of the previous system of overall performance ratings for vertical promotion, which is when an employee is promoted to a position with higher pay.
The point system used in constituent units (CU) such as Diliman and Los Baños, the latter explicitly assigning Scopus-indexed and internationally-published work with higher points, prioritizes output-based research at the expense of extension work and professional development. AUPAEU contends such criteria as embodied in the new promotion instrument do not equitably cover the other clusters of REPS work.
Diverging Priorities
Echoing demanding work needed for output-based promotion is the adherence to international standards regardless of mismatches between sectoral needs and administration priorities.
Moves toward global relevance serve world rankings, where metrics such as academic reputation, citations per faculty, and international research networks prevail. Despite Jimenez’s claims to prioritizing extension work in his vision paper, he continues predecessors’ focus on publishing for consumption abroad. Ill-suited promotion processes, primarily skewed toward output and published research for international citation, form a part of this overall framework.
Mantala questioned internationalization that fails to recognize and account for structural deficiencies in equitable promotions, staff workloads, and planning on the part of the administration. Instead, impact factor—often dependent on international journal indexes such as Scopus—becomes a lauded metric for “groundbreaking” research.
“Paano ka rin ba mag-i-internationalize kung napakabasic ng problema? Dapat mas responsive tayo sa needs ng community,” Mantala said.
Such displays consume funding and administrative attention, neglecting clear and democratic staff planning: Over 1,200 unfilled plantilla posts that preclude the granting of new permanent positions foster reliance on contractualization. And approved in 2019, only last month was the System REPS Welfare Council (SRWC) reconvened with officers directly appointed by Jimenez.
Restructuring Welfare
Mantala stressed the need for consensus among REPS, beginning in alliances and consultations with bodies and unions in different CUs. While several CUs’ REPS welfare councils have been regularly meeting, longstanding proposals such as those regarding hazard pay and sabbatical leave must be tackled at the level of a convened SRWC.
Beyond reviewing terms of employment, the university must streamline the application process for vertical promotion, according to Mantala. It must also heed sectoral calls such as that of AUPAEU for substantial increases to Sagad awards, which are monetary bonuses for employees who have reached the end of their step increments.
As Jimenez’s flagship programs are carried out in the next few years, attention must be given to an equitable system of promotions for REPS, whose livelihoods depend on the pay they receive.
Ultimately, service as written into the university’s new motto must take precedence over the pursuit of world rankings. Such a renewed thrust entails that tending to staff welfare and contributing to the community will trump blind commitments to internationalization. ●
First published in the July 22, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.
