The Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government is not telling health workers when will they be paid for their performance-based bonuses (PBB) earned from 2021 to 2023 when the corona virus pandemic was still raging over much of the country.
At the start of the Holy Week today, health workers staged a protest dubbed “Kalbaryo ng Manggagawang Pangkalusugan at Mamamayan” at the Department of Health (DOH) main headquarters in Manila to remind the government of what it owes them.
The PBB varies for each DOH employee but, generally, it is equivalent to 65% of a monthly salary for each of the mentioned years.
The protesting workers from various public health facilities said the cumulative amount could help tide them over the worsening health and economic crises in the country.
“The Marcos administration promised to uplift the conditions of health workers and the Filipino people, but such promise remains empty as we continue to struggle with low wages, unpaid and delayed benefits, chronic understaffing, no job security and the ongoing privatization of health services,” Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) officer Edwin Pacheco said.
In 2021, the DOH has about 175,000 professionals working in national health facilities with 26,000 more working as contractual workers, the Department of Budget and Management said.
But after the country was saved from the pandemic, largely due to the hard work and sacrifices of health workers, promises of salary increases and benefits have been forgotten, the protesters said.
Salary increases for health workers
AHW said that health workers need to receive living wages of P1,200 per day, or P33,000 per month, as entry-level salaries for all health workers, both in public and private sectors.
The group said nurses and other health professionals should enjoy P50K entry-level salaries in both public and private health institutions.
They also demanded the regularization of contractual health workers and mass hiring to address the severe understaffing in public hospitals.
“We health workers are exasperated and demoralized by the continued gross negligence of the DOH and the Marcos administration in protecting our welfare and the people’s right to quality healthcare,” the AHW said.
“Because of this failure, we cannot stop professional and skilled health workers from migrating abroad in search of greener pastures, despite the pain of being away from their families,” John Paul Gubaton, president, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union-AHW, said.
The AHW said they timed their protest action to highlight deplorable conditions in public hospitals, such as long queues of patients seeking medical consultation and treatment, lack of medicines, and inadequate health facilities.
“If this administration is truly concerned about the deteriorating state of our public healthcare system and the shortage of health workers and nurses in the country, then it must take concrete steps to address our long-standing demands—implement salary increases, release unpaid benefits, ensure mass hiring of regular health workers, and significantly implement a free health service for the people,” AHW said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
