Deadline for health workers extended

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has extended by two days, or until Dec. 11, the deadline for health-care workers to submit documents to claim their active-duty hazard pay and special risk allowance.

The DOH extended its original Dec. 9 deadline after the employees’ unions of 10 major private hospitals in Metro Manila protested they were given only one day to submit the documentary requirements, or else the benefits provided them by law will be forfeited.

“Acknowledging the limited number of working days left in the year to process the benefits, parties have agreed to move the deadline to the end of the week,” the DOH said in a statement after a dialogue with representatives from hospital unions and management on Dec. 9.

The DOH also asked hospitals and health facilities to facilitate the processing of the benefits due to medical front-liners, stressing “the invaluable contribution of our valiant health workers in the fight against COVID-19.”

“While hospitals and other health facilities may request additional requirements and impose deadlines with a view to expediting the release of the active-duty hazard pay or special risk allowance, these impositions should not unduly burden our (health workers),” said the DOH.

The unions of 10 major private hospitals in Metro Manila wrote Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Dec. 8 asking him to extend the submission of requirements for hazard pay claims for at least one week.

They said they only came to know of the “arbitrary” Dec. 9 deadline on Monday, Dec. 7, through social media and employee group chats that circulated a PowerPoint presentation by the Metro Manila Center for Health Development (MMCHD) dated Dec. 4.

The MMCHD presentation reportedly warned that the Dec. 9 deadline will be strictly enforced and that failure to submit the requirements shall be considered a waiver of the entitlement.The hospital unions said it was “impossible” to prepare and submit all the required documents in one day.

“This is unacceptable and, frankly, a disservice to the thousands of health-care front-liners who have risked life and limb to combat the COVID-19 pandemic,” they told Duque.