Higher, just wages for nurses pushed
Credit to Author: besguerra| Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 21:35:55 +0000
MANILA, Philippines Sen. Richard Gordon is pushing for a measure that will give nurses higher and just wages.
At the 45th Annual Convention and Scientific Meeting of the Operating Room Nurses Association of the Philippines Inc. on Saturday, the senator said the government should have a clear policy that would be beneficial to nurses, adding that they should be “compensated fairly.”
Gordon cited a provision in Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, that nurses in public health institutions should get a minimum base pay of P30,531 per month, or Salary Grade (SG) 15. An entry-level nurse, on the other hand, receives P8,000 to P13,500 on a monthly basis, Gordon said.
“The government promised them SG 15 but they have not attained that until now. That’s wrong. Once you pass the exam, it is the duty of the government to give you opportunities. I will lead you to lobby that in the Senate. The noisy wheel gets the oil. Nurses are precious,” Gordon said.
Stop ‘pirating’
“If the government wants to continue sending them overseas, there should be a policy or an agreement between the government and the nurses that states that those who will go abroad for employment should return to the country after five years and teach the new nurses,” he added.
For his part, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. said the Department of Health (DOH) should stop “pirating” nurses from hospitals run by the local governments.
‘Flawed’
Villafuerte pointed out that nurses in local government unit (LGU)-run hospitals had started leaving their jobs en masse to join the DOH’s new Nurse Deployment Project (NDP).
He described the NDP as an “apparently flawed” national recruitment program purportedly aimed at deploying health professionals to far-flung communities across the country with better salary rates than those offered by LGU hospitals.
The lawmaker said the DOH’s recruitment strategy could weaken the implementation of the universal health care program because LGUs, which are tasked to provide primary and secondary health care, face a shortage of medical staff.
He cited the case of his own province, where nurses had started leaving en masse from LGU-run hospitals to transfer to Bicol Medical Center in Naga City, which reportedly opened 800 new positions for nurses under the NDP.
Under the NDP, a nurse’s take-home pay amounts to about P45,000 a month in 2019, in line with the increase mandated under the fourth and final tranche of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL).
The DOH used to offer nurses under the NDP a monthly take-home pay of roughly P25,000 a month when the program was first implemented several years ago, which is also the standard pay rate in LGU-run hospitals.
Mandated increases
But mandated increases under the SSL have raised the pay rate yearly under the NDP, with nurses enjoying a total take-home pay of up to P45,000, which covers the basic Salary Grade 15 level of P30,531 plus benefits such as Personal Equity Retirement Account along with subsistence, laundry and hazard pay.
NDP recruits also get a one-time extra incentive package of clothing allowance, cash gift and productivity enhancement incentive, among others, Villafuerte said.
He pointed out, in contrast, that the salary of LGU nurses was pegged at about P25,000, based on rates set by the Department of Budget and Management.
‘Something wrong’
“In principle, the intention of the DOH is good, because it will encourage our nurses to work in far-flung disadvantaged areas that lack health care facilities, but this is now happening at the expense of the quality of our LGU hospitals,” Villafuerte said.
“This means there is something wrong with the implementation of the NDP regardless of the noble intention of the DOH.”