Will dangling a much higher monthly pay to
our nurses make them stay here instead of leaving for
abroad?
The labor group Federation of Free Workers
(FFW) is urging the House of Representatives to pass
a bill mandating a P63,997 starting salary for nurses in
both the government and private sectors so they can
be convinced to stay put in the country instead of looking for higher pay in whatever country would ac-cept
them.
The proposed pay is nearly double that of
what nurses in government medical facilities and health
cen-ters are getting at present, which is P36,619.
But it’s the nurses in the private sector who
are getting the short end of the stick from the government.
Private sector nurses in the National Capital
Region receive a daily wage of P610 while those in
the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) get a ridiculously low daily wage of P431,
which is way below the daily minimum wage in NCR.
In other words, if our nurses receive starvation
wages whether they’re in government or in the private
sec-tor, we cannot blame them if they want to go abroad
where their services and expertise are better appre-ciated.
If government does not consider the noble
nursing profession as deserving of better pay despite
their having finished four years of a nursing course and
passing a difficult board exam, then the country is likely
to have a shortage of nurses that will adversely affect the
over-all quality of our health system.
We understand that there are already no less
than 58 bills pending before the House of Representatives and 21 in the Senate all aimed at raising the salaries of nurses to between P50,000 and P64,000
So what’s keeping our lawmakers from taking the plunge and giving our nurses what is rightfully
due them—a decent living wage—to allow them and
their families to keep body and soul together?
The FFW-UERM Employees Union has
pointed out that there is a significant disparity between
the pay of nurses in the public and private sectors,
with those working in government already getting
P35,000 monthly.
“These wage disparities are severe and unjust. Nurses, regardless of their employment sector,
merit higher compensation given their crucial role and
the intense physical and mental strain of their profes-sion,” the union pointed out.
We completely agree with their position: “We
must stem the brain drain. We need to give our nurses
compelling reasons to stay in the Philippines and not
seek greener pastures abroad.”
