Health workers’ union gives DOH August 31 deadline to release COVID-19 benefits

MANILA, Philippines — A union of health workers on Tuesday gave the Department of Health (DOH) until August 31, Tuesday, to implement healthcare workers’ “long overdue” benefits and allowances.

“We strongly demand more actions than words,” said Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) national president Robert Mendoza in a statement.

“Thus, we are giving the DOH until August 31, 2021, to implement the long overdue COVID-19 benefits to health workers. With this deadline, we are all set to hold a series of protest actions this week as many among us got infected and succumbed to COVID-19 already without enjoying these much-deserved benefits,” Mendoza added.

AHW demanded the release of special risk allowance (SRA) for all employees, regardless of employment status; release of meals accommodation and transportation (MAT) allowance; and release of active hazard duty pay (AHDP) for all healthcare workers on or before August 31.

Mendoza said permanent, contractual, job order, and Contract of Service or agency-hired employees should get the SRA, while also demanding the release of active hazard duty pay to all public health workers from January to June 2021.

AHW also demanded that the MAT allowance of DOH workers from January to June, as well as the MAT allowance of local government units from September 2020 to June 2021, to be released.

On Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Budget and Management to release the benefits of health workers within 10 days. 

Despite the President’s order, Mendoza noted that the DOH released a Memorandum on Submission of List of Remaining Eligible Private and Public Healthcare Workers which only “specifies on releasing the SRA benefit while excluding the other COVID-19 benefits” like MAT and AHDP.

“DOH does not follow the lawmakers’ statement that all health workers should be given the SRA benefit because DOH keeps on justifying that SRA will only be given to those with direct contact and exposed to COVID-19 patients,” Mendoza said.

“Where is the compassion and heart of the DOH and this government for the health workers who risked their lives in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic?” Mendoza lamented.

Mendoza also said the “unjustifiable” delay of the COVID-19 benefits to the health workers is a “manifestation of how sick and rotten this government is.”

“We can no longer swallow the callousness, the gross incompetence, and the criminal neglect of Secretary [Francisco] Duque, the DOH, and the Duterte government,” Mendoza added. “Thus, we are holding them accountable.”

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