MANILA (UCAN): Philippine Church authorities were asked by doctors and nurses on November 16 to push the government and the private health sector to increase their hazard pay before Christmas.
The Alliance of Health Workers in the Philippines said they had suffered “more than enough” by exposing themselves to the Covid-19 coronavirus without “just compensation.”
Manila physician and the alliance’s president, Mark John Pojol, pointed out, “Almost 30 doctors and more than 50 nurses have died because of the coronavirus, but our pay and benefits have remained the same. If the government will not listen to our cry, with the help of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, we hope that society will listen to our plea.”
Pojol said his group pleaded for endorsement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, particularly for hospitals run by Catholic congregations, to increase their hazard pay.
The bishops’ conference had yet to make an official announcement on the matter, according to the Social Action, Justice and Peace Commission, but assured the medical workers that it would issue guidelines to all Catholic-run hospitals.
Almost 30 doctors and more than 50 nurses have died because of the coronavirus, but our pay and benefits have remained the same
Mark John Pojol
“We have yet to deliberate but as part of the commission’s mission to foster social justice and to encourage social movements and organisations animated by Christian principles, it is our moral duty to evaluate the realities of our health workers and do what we can in our capacity,” Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, the commission’s vice chairperson, said.
In August 2021, Philippine lawmakers authorised the release of hazard pay to health workers despite the million-dollar controversy in the Health Department triggered by overpriced protective medical gear and face masks.
Around seven billion pesos [$934.6 million] was released to 400,000 workers. Yet the alliance said the amount was not sufficient to cover the more than 1.8 million Filipino healthcare workers.
The Health Department earlier confirmed the release of the workers’ unpaid Health Emergency Allowance [HEA] before Christmas Day.
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“I am not saying that the hazard pay is not important. But we hope we can give the HEA, which is different from the hazard pay, before Christmas so that our healthcare workers will have a merry Christmas,” Maria Rosario, the undersecretary of the Department of Health, told the press on November 15.
The Covid-19 Hazard Pay is the additional pay given to persons who physically reported to work on the prescribed official working hours and, firstly, performed hazardous duty
Kier Balasbas
However the alliance,said their allowance, while slated to be released soon, is a delayed allowance, not the hazard pay.
“The Covid-19 Hazard Pay is the additional pay given to persons who physically reported to work on the prescribed official working hours and, firstly, performed hazardous duty, or secondly, urgent and necessary services for the delivery of basic goods and services to the public during the lockdowns,” one nurse, Kier Balasbas, said.
Balasbas urged medical workers to fight for their hazard pay increase as a “matter of right,” adding, “Hazard pay is different from bonuses or allowances. Hazard pay is a matter of the rights of workers. If we fell sick, we were supposed to be quarantined and isolate ourselves, thus we received pay cuts because of our absence. Our hazard pay should cover for this.”
As of September, 82 health workers had died while more than 20,000 nurses tested positive for Covid-19.
A doctor working for the government receives an average of 60,000 pesos [$8,260] while a nurse working in a government hospital receives an average salary of 35,000 pesos [$4,820] per month, according to the Philippine Information Agency.
