DOLE urged to set private nurses' minimum pay to P32k
Published Jan 12, 2020 12:00 am
By Ellson Quismorio
A ranking congressman is prodding the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to set a monthly minimum pay of P32,053 or higher for nurse practitioners in the private sector.
Why? Because it can, says Anakalusugan Party-List Rep. Michael Defensor, chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts.
Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor (AnaKalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor Official Facebook Page / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“The DOLE – through the regional tripartite wages and productivity boards – is fully empowered to fix the minimum pay of all workers along industry lines or levels, including nurses in private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, and similar settings,” Defensor said in a statement Sunday.
President Duterte earlier signed into law a measure that increased by a weighted average of 23.24 percent the salaries of some 1.4 million civilian government personnel, including nurses employed by the Department of Health (DOH), over the next four years.
READ MORE: Duterte signs Salary Standardization Law
Under the new Salary Standardization Law, or Republic Act (RA) 11466, the entry-level pay of government nurses was bumped up to P32,053 effective January 1, 2020.
The same starting pay will go up to P33,575 on January 1, 2021; P35,097 on January 1, 2022; and P36,619 on January 1, 2023.
Defensor, a former Palace chief of staff, underscored the importance of wooing more Filipinos to the profession.
“We have to encourage new nursing graduates to practice their profession if we want all our hospitals – both public and private – to have a stable supply of nursing staff in the years ahead. And assuring them greater pay will help,” Defensor, also a Committee on Health vice chairman, said.
“A considerable number of new nursing graduates that have not left the country are opting out of their profession, and are instead pursuing more gainful careers elsewhere, such as in real estate and insurance sales,” he said.
Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor (AnaKalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor Official Facebook Page / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“The DOLE – through the regional tripartite wages and productivity boards – is fully empowered to fix the minimum pay of all workers along industry lines or levels, including nurses in private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, and similar settings,” Defensor said in a statement Sunday.
President Duterte earlier signed into law a measure that increased by a weighted average of 23.24 percent the salaries of some 1.4 million civilian government personnel, including nurses employed by the Department of Health (DOH), over the next four years.
READ MORE: Duterte signs Salary Standardization Law
Under the new Salary Standardization Law, or Republic Act (RA) 11466, the entry-level pay of government nurses was bumped up to P32,053 effective January 1, 2020.
The same starting pay will go up to P33,575 on January 1, 2021; P35,097 on January 1, 2022; and P36,619 on January 1, 2023.
Defensor, a former Palace chief of staff, underscored the importance of wooing more Filipinos to the profession.
“We have to encourage new nursing graduates to practice their profession if we want all our hospitals – both public and private – to have a stable supply of nursing staff in the years ahead. And assuring them greater pay will help,” Defensor, also a Committee on Health vice chairman, said.
“A considerable number of new nursing graduates that have not left the country are opting out of their profession, and are instead pursuing more gainful careers elsewhere, such as in real estate and insurance sales,” he said.