HEALTH workers on Thursday demanded salary increases, mass hiring, and regularization of contractual health workers from the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration.
Health workers from government-owned or run hospitals, including the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, and Philippine Children’s Medical Center, staged a noontime picket, criticizing the state of “Bagong Pilipinas” and worsening poverty.
“Is this what ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ means, Mr. President? The continued worsening of poverty among health workers and the public? The relentless increase in the prices of goods and utilities? Almost monthly hikes in electricity, water, and gas bills? Yet, there is no fair wage increase for health workers and government employees,” Edwin Pacheco, a nursing attendant and president of the NKTI Employees Association-Alliance of Health Workers, said.
Pacheco said their meager salaries can no longer cover the everyday needs of their families, and the cost of living is far beyond what they are earning.
According to the Ibon Foundation, as of June, a family of five in the National Capital Region needs a daily living wage of P1,190. Health workers are calling for P33,000 as an entry-level wage for public and private health workers.
Salome Ejes, a clerk and president of the Philippine Heart Center Employees Association-Alliance of Health Workers, said that in addition to a pay hike, they are demanding the mass hiring of health workers with regular positions and not contractual ones to address severe understaffing in public hospitals.
Ejes pointed out that despite their sacrifices and contributions before and after the pandemic, health workers are still undervalued, and their needs remain unmet.
The Alliance of Health Workers is calling on the Marcos administration to honor its commitment to treating health workers as modern-day heroes by addressing their demands.
The group said it is deeply demoralized by the government’s failure to resolve issues.
Health workers have vowed to join the “people’s SONA” on July 22 to bring their demands to the streets.
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