Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III blasted private hospitals in the Philippines on Monday, June 7 for supposedly driving away home-grown nurses to countries abroad because of their "exploitative" practices.
In an online press briefing on the occasion of Migrant Workers' Day, Bello cited the huge disparity between the pay of a nurse employed by a public or government-run hospital as opposed to one employed by a private hospital.
"Kasi ngayon, maganda ang rate ng nurses at healthcare workers natin sa public sector. Pero sa private sector, naku. Exploited yung ating mga nurses (Nowadays, the salary of nurses and healthcare workers in the public sector in good. But in the private sector, my goodness. Our nurses there are exploited)," he said.
"Maraming hospital dyan ang yaman yaman pero kung magbigay ng sweldo, below the minimum pa. Kaya...we should not be surprised na marami sa mga nurses natin ang gusto mag-abroad dahil wala silang opportunity to earn a reasonable salary dito (There are rich hospitals out there that pay their nurses below minimum wage. That's why...we shouldn't be surprised if a lot of our nurses want to go abroad due to the lack of opportunity to earn a reasonable salary here)," he said.
According to Bello, nurses at public hospitals earn P30,000 to P32,000. This is a far cry from what their private hospital counterparts earn.
"Samantalang sa private sector, may tumatanggap ng P5,000; P8,000; or P12,000. Pero magtatabraho sila ng 10 to 12 hours (In the private sector, there are those who accept salaries of P5,000; P8,000; or P12,000. But you would have to work 10 to 12 hours)," the DOLE head honcho said.
Bello also mentioned the practice of some private hospitals of actually charging the nurses that they accept.
"Mayroon pa diyan mga nurses na sa halip na magsweldo, sila pa nagbabayad ng training fee (There are nurses out there who, instead of getting paid by the hospital, actually end up paying the hospital a training fee).
"May mga gusto kasing mag-abroad (The reason for this is that these nurses plan to go abroad), they need the experience," Bello said.
He maintained that private hospitals should at the very least pay their nurses minimum wage since its the lawful thing to do.
Bello reckoned that nurses who aren't paid at least a minimum wage should sue their hospital-employers.