ANGELES CITY, Pampanga – More than 100 nurses assigned at the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center (RLMMC), a local government hospital here, will each receive a salary increase of P12,000, and were given the assurance of a promotion starting next year.
Mayor Carmelo Lazatin Jr. announced this Wednesday, November 4, as he assured that 111 nurses at RLMMC – 19 permanent workers, four casual, and 88 of contract of service (COS) status – will benefit from the salary upgrade as their reward for their services rendered and sacrifices made during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
"All 19 permanent and four casual RLMMC nurses with a present Salary Grade (SG) 11 equivalent to P22,316 will be upgraded to SG 15, with a monthly basic salary of P33,575,'' Lazatin said.
"For the 88 COS nurses with SG 10 of P20, 000 basic monthly salaries, they will be upgraded to SG 15, amounting to P32,000,'' he added.
The city government has appropriated a total amount of P43,058,700 for the salary increase of the nurses, according to Budget Officer Corazon Ayson.
Of the budget, P9,266,700 were allotted for the 19 permanent and four casual RLMMC nurses, and P33,792,000 for 88 COS RLMMC nurses,
RLMMC employs 30 permanent nurses, but only 19 of them needed to have their salaries adjusted since the 11 nurses already got their raise, Ayson added.
The salary adjustment for nurses is mandated under Section 32 of Republic Act No. 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.
RLMMC, headed by Dr. Froilan Canlas, continues to observe safety and health protocols, and conducts regular swabbing every two weeks of all its 42 health workers assigned at the COVID-19 wards, according to Lazatin.
Last August, the city government allocated P10-million for the immediate release of the Special Risk Allowance (SRA) for city health workers handling COVID-19 patients. The health workers got their SRA last October amounting to 50 percent of their monthly salary.