14-year-old law says nurses must get P25-K minimum monthly salary

The media reports on the outrageous, illegal and deceptive recruitment of nurses, who were promised nursing jobs in Kuwait but were given visiting visas only, show the vulnerability of our nurses who, in their ardent desire to provide for their families, easily fall prey to unscrupulous recruiters dangling better-paying jobs abroad.

While love for family is quite strong among nurses, it is unfair—and ironic —that this virtue forces many of us to leave our families for work overseas. The truth is, the state sees Filipino nurses abroad as an easy source of economic “fodder” because of their remittances—hence the policy to keep nurses’ salaries low to drive them to work abroad.

With President Duterte’s assurance that “change is coming,” we are eagerly awaiting the day when it will be easy for nurses to opt to serve the Filipino people under edifying and just work conditions.

Nurses are licensed professionals. We went through four full years (no summer breaks) of extensive lectures and practicum (rigorous clinical and community training), spent at least a million pesos to complete our course, and had to review for and pass a taxing board examination in order to practice our profession. Yet, we are made to start our career (if lucky to find a nursing job) as a beginning nurse.

In public health facilities in the provinces, cities or towns, new nurses usually start as “trainees” with minimum allowance, or none at all, in exchange for a “certificate of hospital experience” required for work abroad. The “luckier” ones in the private sector just have to be content with below-minimum, “nonliving,” wages. This, even as nurses, in both public and private sectors, must contend with heavy workload, understaffing—but with little benefits, if any. Many, unable to find decent nursing jobs, opt to just enter nonnursing jobs for economic survival.

Going back to those duped by illegal recruiters, we agree that ethical rules in the deployment of nurses should be strictly enforced. But the greater challenge is improving  local work conditions so nurses will be encouraged to stay in our country and serve their countrymen.

We thus call on the new administration, which has declared health-care and workers’ rights as a priority concern, to “walk its talk” by taking concrete steps to immediately legislate the long-overdue increase in the salary of all nurses in both public and private sectors. Toward this end, the Filipino Nurses United supports the refiling of House Bill No. 5541 (“An Act Upgrading the Minimum Monthly Salary of Nurses to P25,000 and Providing Benefits for Nurses”) by Rep. Carlos Zarate of the Bayan Muna party-list.

The fact is, a starting monthly salary of P25,000 for government nurses is already mandated by the 14-year-old Philippine Nursing Law. But this has never been implemented on the usual excuse that there is no budget. Regarding the nurses in the private sector, the previous dispensation clearly sided and protected the interest of hospital owners, especially the big capitalists by keeping nurses’ wages at minimum, despite the critical role they perform in the health-care “business.”

If we may remind the President, we nurses, not unlike the police, also face extreme risks, various health hazards even, while performing our duties as frontline health-care providers, whether in hospitals, communities or other health settings. We, too, deserve immediate attention and help to get out of the miserable work conditions we are in.

—ELEANOR M. NOLASCO, RN, national president, Filipino Nurses United, filipino_nurses 2015@yahoo.com