The UP Board of Regents (BOR) in its 1255th meeting on May 27, approved the Financial Assistance Program for Hospitalization Expen-ses (FAPHE) for faculty; administra-tive staff; and research, extension, and professional staff (REPS).

Proposed by UP Diliman Chan-cellor Cao, the FAPHE allots a maxi-mum accumulated amount of P200,000 for every employee for cases of hospi-talization during years of active service. Tenured faculty, administrative staff, and REPS are covered by this program.

In addition, regular fulltime faculty who are not tenured but who occupy plantilla items may qualify if they have rendered five years of continuous service to UP. They must also be in active service at the time of the claim. Similarly, contractual employees may qualify if they have rendered the same amount of continuous service and are also in active service at the time of the claim.

The BOR also approved amend-ments to the grant of sick leave benefits (cumulative and commutable) to mem-bers of the faculty, which was originally approved in 2007. Three provisions were amended.

First, from sick leave benefits equiva-lent to ten days per year of fulltime ser-vice, regular and fulltime faculty will now get 15 days, cumulative and commutable upon compulsory retirement or upon op-tional retirement due to severe illness as defined by Philhealth. The additional five days earned per year of service are retro-active to the date of their original appoint-ment.

Second, members of the faculty who get seriously ill may avail of sick leave with pay charged to this benefit and may also be allowed to monetize a portion of said benefit, subject to availability of funds. The earlier provision states that they cannot monetize before retirement.

Finally, the period of extended service beyond the age of 65 will also be included in computation for the said benefit. Prior to the amendment, the provision only mentioned the period for which a regular faculty member has been a substitute and/or on contractual status.

All the other provisions remain the same and faculty members are still required to file the application for leave to avail of this benefit.

During the Presidential Advisory Council meeting on June 11, the schedule of release of employee benefits for the year was approved. Apart from the clo-thing allowance, productivity incentive bonus, mid-year bonus, and mid-year cash gift, which were already released, UP employees are set to receive the merit in-centive bonus in August and October and the year-end bonus and year-end cash gift in November.

There are also two types of mone-tization of leave credits available to emplo-yees. The regular monetization, which is a maximum of 20 days, will be in Novem-ber or December. The other type pertain-ing to special cases is available at any time during the year and can be for a maximum of 50 days.

In addition, benefits that are part of the Collective Negotiation Agreement between UP and the All-UP Workers Union will be given as follows: the first rice allowance in July, the second in September, and the third in December, along with the grocery allowance.

The release of these employee benefits is subject to the availability of funds and the approval of the BOR.