House bill proposes minimum pay package for private sector nurses

LEADERS of the House of Representatives are pushing for the passage of a minimum pay package for nurses in the private sector to prevent a mass emigration of health workers to foreign countries amid the pandemic.

In House Bill 7569, Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte, House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Eric Yap and Dumper-ptda Rep. Claudine Diana Bautista said despite nurses’ gallant efforts in facing Covid-19, they are still paid considerably less than their counterparts in the public sector, adding “they must not be allowed to endure outrageously low salaries and wages.”

The lawmakers, citing the Bureau of Local Employment of the Department of Labor and Employment, said registered nurses receive an average salary of P9,757 a month.

The lawmakers said this “paltry” amount is even less than what a minimum-wage earner gets each month.

Recently, the lawmakers said, the government has declared that nurses in the public service are entitled to a minimum monthly salary equivalent to Salary Grade (SG) 15, depending on the class of the city or municipality.

Depending on the step increment, they said a government employee with SG 15 may receive anywhere from P19,845 to P30,531 each month.

“Although, these amounts are still a far cry from the salaries received by their foreign counterparts, it is a huge improvement in the salaries of nurses working in the public sector. This measure will also aid in addressing the problem of mass emigration of our nurses and health workers, to the detriment of our nation,” the lawmakers said in their explanatory note.

“At the very center of this battle against the virus stands our country’s unyielding nurses who care for the sick, bravely risking their own lives. Too many of our courageous medical frontliners have already paid the ultimate price as they tried to save our countrymen during this pandemic. We, as a nation, are in their debt and pledge our immeasurable gratitude for their heroic service,” they added.

The bill mandates the government, through the National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC) of the Department of Labor and Employment, in coordination with the Department of Health, the Philippine Nursing Association, the Philippine Board of Nursing, and other relevant stakeholders, to establish a minimum pay for nurses in private hospitals, taking into account the particular circumstances of their profession and the bed capacity, location, and other pertinent aspects of the hospitals they serve in with the purpose of establishing a minimum wage at par with their government counterparts.

“This bill is not merely filed to increase the financial benefits of nurses but to show that the State is supporting our nurses and valuing our health-care workers as they battle the pandemic and other deadly diseases head-on. This measure is simply the least we can do to support our frontline health workers,” the lawmakers said.

The measure prescribes that within 10 days after the the public hearing, NWPC shall release an order containing the approved minimum wage based on the result of the public hearing. No such order shall take effect until 15 days from its publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

It added any private hospital who violates the provisions of the proposal shall pay a fine of not less than P100,000 not more than P1 million for each violation.