The recent signing of Republic Act No. 11701, which provides night shift differential pay for government workers, is a welcome development.
This legislation is a positive way of compensating public employees for being made to work at inconvenient times and acts as a deterrent against long or abnormal hours imposed by national government agencies, local government units, and government-owned corporations. This pay also provides a mechanism for employers to provide a service or continue operation outside normal business hours where it is either profitable to do so or required due to a public service obligation.
Certainly, many employees would choose not to work long or unsociable hours if they were not adequately compensated, for example, those in Salary Grade 10 and below who could be left financially vulnerable if that extra pay is not available. These low-paid workers are extremely dependent on minimum pay rates but with differential may be able to top up their wages to a reasonable level.
Differential pay offers an economic incentive for people to work unsociable hours (i.e., evening shifts, early morning shifts, rotating shifts), which is considered intrinsic to the nursing profession. Whether patients get sick at 9 a.m. on a Monday or 9 p.m. on a Saturday, they expect and need the best possible care from the health system.
While this new law is a boon to civil service, as well as the uniformed service personnel, the private sector is being set aside. Despite the collective industrial strength of nurses in the private hospital sector, they continue to languish on low pay and unfavorable conditions of employment in their workplaces.
JEROME BABATE
Beta Nu Delta Nursing Society