Nurses deserve higher, just wages

This is a reaction to the article “Higher, just wages for nurses pushed” (7/15/19).

We agree with Sen. Richard Gordon that nurses should be “compensated fairly.” The Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 has never been implemented despite having been enacted 17 years ago. Nurses could have enjoyed their long-deserved raise and entry-level salary of Grade 15, or its equivalent of P30,531 in the present scale had this been done.

Filipino nurses have felt neglected and unrecognized for so many years, with very low salaries and increasingly heavy workload. This has led to the formation of Filipino Nurses United (FNU), a national labor association registered under the Department of Labor and Employment. FNU has been demanding the implementation of the nursing law for just compensation and humane work conditions.

In 2013, FNU convenors helped in drafting House Bill No. 1619, which was filed by the Bayan Muna party list in the 16th Congress. This was not passed, but FNU lobbied hard so that it was refiled in the 17th Congress as HB 7196.

We welcome Senator Gordon’s efforts to lead the lobbying in the Senate and to sponsor counterpart bills to increase the entry salary of nurses.

On the other hand, we are quite disturbed at Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr.’s observations that there is a problem with the pay of nurses who are deployed in far-flung barrios. FNU believes that nurses deserve a high salary, such as a take-home pay of P45,000, for the work they do in rural areas. The government has the obligation to give such salary with corresponding benefits. It has actually committed a violation by not providing plantilla positions or regular employment to nurses under the nurse deployment program. Local government units must ensure higher and just wages for nurses under them, along with adequate benefits, instead of seeing the law as a “flawed program” just because it mandates higher pay for the work we do.

JOCELYN SANTOS-ANDAMO, RN, secretary general, Filipino Nurses United