Camarines Sur Representative Luis Raymund "LRay" Villafuerte on Saturday, September 11, sought the congressional passage of a bill providing health workers with hazard pay plus substantial increases in the current rates of their overtime pay and other compensations.
Villafuerte said the approval of two pending measures, which he authored, would prevent a repeat of the current unrest among medical personnel resulting from the undue delay in the release of their hazard pay and the COVID-19 pandemic-related benefits.
”The growing unrest is alarming, especially given the problems plaguing the country's healthcare infrastructure and the looming shortage of medical frontliners. We need to write these bills into laws soon enough so that the release of such benefits for healthcare workers will be mandatory without any need for a presidential directive,’’ Villafuerte said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III informed the House Appropriations committee at a recent hearing that the benefits for healthcare workers were not included in the Department of Health's (DOH) proposed budget, after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) slashed its outlay for next year's COVID-19 response from P73.99 billion to just P19.68 billion.
Duque said the original P73.99-billion proposal included P50.41 billion for the special risk allowance (SRA), meals and transportation allowance of healthcare workers.
The health secretary said separately there is also no allocation next year for the additional benefits because such financial aid for healthcare workers was tucked in the Bayanihan to Arise as One bill (Bayanihan 3), the stimulus bill that the House had already approved but which is still pending at the Senate.
Under House Bill (HB) 7490, Villafuerte wants the government to provide hazard pay to all healthcare frontliners, equivalent to at least 30 percent of their respective basic salaries, for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also said that the proposed hazard pay would also be given to workers of third-party service contractors, like security guards and janitors who are assigned to medical facilities treating coronavirus-infected patients.
HB 7490 applies to all healthcare workers in the public and private sector, he added.
His other measure, HB 9670, seeks to amend the existing Magna Carta of Public Health Workers by increasing the rates for their overtime pay and other incentives and benefits.
HB 9670 aims to increase the night shift differential pay of public health workers from 10 percent to 20 percent of the regular wage they receive.
The bill also seeks to raise the additional amount they receive for each hour of work performed between 6 PM and 6AM the following day from 10 percent to 20 percent of such overtime rate.
It also provides for a P300 daily subsistence allowance and P10,000 monthly hazard allowance for each public health worker.
These amounts may be increased as may be determined in the future by the Secretary of Health, the bill states.
The laundry allowance of public health workers required to wear uniforms will also be increased from P125 to P500 per month or higher as may be determined in the future by the health secretary, HB 9670 states.