Nurses press for better pay, treatment through union

BAGUIO City’s nursing community marches on Oct. 29 to demand better pay. The nurses also announced their readiness to become a national union. VINCENT CABREZA/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—The growing threat of infectious diseases like Ebola and the impact of the economic integration in Asia next year have become compelling reasons to unionize the country’s nurses, members of Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) said here on Wednesday.

They said the sector was ready to unionize to negotiate for better terms with private and government hospitals to enforce better healthcare and to acquire sufficient protective gear for health workers tasked with dealing with health problems like the one being caused worldwide by the highly contagious Ebola virus.

Dr. Erlinda Palaganas, former PNA governor, said PNA House of Delegates recently deliberated on a resolution transforming PNA into a national union, but a conservative bloc of nurses rejected the initiative.

Advocates for unionizing nurses would again try to convince the PNA leadership about the benefits of a union, said Jossel Ebesate, national president of Alliance of Health Workers.

A national nursing union will be able to address conflicts, among them the government’s inability to enforce a P25,000 monthly salary for new nurses in public hospitals, he said.

Government nurses are entitled to that salary as prescribed by the salary standardization law, he said.

He said a union would also help nurses cope with the impact of next year’s market integration of member-states comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Integration speeds up the transfer of goods and resources among Asean countries like the Philippines and may open up jobs for Filipino nurses, Ebesate said.

But it would also allow a flood of nurses from other countries to work in local hospitals for pay lower   than that of Filipino nurses, he said.

Nurses compose one of the largest sectors of the labor force that are unemployed or underemployed.

The unemployment situation has led to a decline in enrollment in nursing schools, said Mary Grace Lacanaria, head of the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nurses. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon