From REGULAR to PART-TIME? pls help

With high respect and utmost humility, I would like to request for your valuable opinion on my employment status in one of the educational institution here in the Philippines.

I am a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and I’ve been a member of the faculty of this institution since June 1999 and was given Regular Status in June 2004. During that time I already started taking my Master’s Degree in Business Administration. As I signed my 2004 regularization contract I was reminded by our Administrator to finish my graduate schooling since they are saying that it is supposed to be the requirement for the regularization of faculty. My superiors by that time then were fully aware of the Master’s Degree I am taking and they haven’t rejected it but were asking me to finish it. And so I did, by 2008 I already finished my master’s degree with slight change in the course since I shifted from MBA to MBM due to conflict with my previous school.

My regularization really is so significant to me since as the law says, it gives the security of tenure to those who have been given such. As I received that regularization, I made up my mind to stay in the institution holding on to the promise of security of tenure; however; just last May 26, 2011 without any warning, during a meeting we were told by our superiors that we are not regular employees of the institution anymore but merely part-time instructors; thus taking away our security of tenure which I firmly believed is opposing the labor law. This claim of changing our status from regular to part-time as they were saying was based on the new general academic policies issued by the institution with date of effectivity on even earlier than our meeting.

We were told that in order to be regularized again, we should meet the minimum qualification for full-time faculty and so we are to finish a relevant Master’s Degree -this claim they are saying is based on MORPHE which was implemented around December 2008 (though the term "relevant" can't be found in it). We were even told that if we will not pursue such Master’s Degree after two years, they will even strip off the benefits (such as leaves and healthcard) that we were given and had been a company practice for such a long time.

At the beginning of the semester, we were given the contract intended for Part-Time Faculty and until now we are not signing it but they are presently forcing us to do so, they even had a warning that if we will not sign the contract, we are waiving our rights to the two-year grace period. Presently, I am still not signing the contract…but they are doing some effort right now to force us sign it.

They are saying that they are implementing the laws of corrections because it was just a mistake that we were regularized. Is this really possible? Should I sign the contract?
Please help…I’m really confused by all these.

there are some very specific rules on teachers in the manual for private schools and issuances of ched. unfortunately, not all these resources are on-line so I am not inclined to answer in full.

what I do remember is that to be considered a full time teacher you should be in the school for 8 working hours a day. was this their basis to strip you of regularization?

thanks for the prompt reply sir. it's not the number of hours worked, but their claim is that at this point I don't have the minimum qualification for a full-time faculty because they are saying that my master's degree (Master in Business Management) is NOT RELEVANT to my undergraduate course (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science). When I browsed MORPHE it just says that the minimum qualification is "with a master's degree teaching mainly in his major field". The word "RELEVANT" didn't even appear.

i think your best remedy is to write to the legal department of CHED and request for an opinion

Please note that the MORPHE provides:

“SECTION 35. Minimum Faculty Qualifications. — The minimum qualifications of a faculty in a higher education institution shall be as follows:
1) For undergraduate programs:
a) Holder of a master's degree, to teach mainly in his major field and where applicable, a holder of appropriate professional license requiring at least a bachelor's degree for the professional courses. However, in specific fields where there is dearth of holders of Master's degree, a holder of a professional license requiring at least a bachelor's degree may be qualified to teach. Any deviation from this requirement will be subject to regulation by the Commission.”

The problem is that CHED is trying to be strict in the implementation of this provision. Since the responsibility of complying with the MORPHE falls on the schools, some are left with very little choice but to take drastic actions as to professors or instructors who have not complied with the quoted provision of the MORPHE. I already inquired with the CHED about this and it insists that compliance is the school's responsibility.