Hospital employees balk at DOH’s proposed ‘singular allowance’ for health workers

A union of healthcare workers in a private hospital is rejecting the Department of Health’s (DOH) proposal for a “singular allowance,” the amount of which will be based on a health workers’ risk exposure to COVID-19 patients.

At a Senate hearing, St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City Employees Union secretary Benjie Foscalbo said the group supports Senate Bills 2371, 2398, and 2406 that seek to universally accord benefits to healthcare workers who serve at the COVID-19 pandemic frontlines.

The measures mandate a more inclusive benefits system for both public and private healthcare workers who were directly or indirectly exposed to COVID-19 patients, providing them with monthly risk allowances; actual hazard duty pay for all health workers serving in the frontline; accommodations, transportation and meals, and life insurances.

While the group supports the proposed measures in the upper chamber, Foscalbo said the DOH’s proposal categorizes healthcare workers as “low-risk,” “medium risk,” and “high risk.”

“I don’t see the justification about it,” he said.

Under the DOH’s “singular allowance” proposal, healthcare workers will receive the following rates depending on their risk exposures: P3,000 for low-risk exposure, P6,000 for medium risk exposure, and P9,000 for high risk exposure. 

The DOH defines a “low risk” healthcare worker as performing administrative duties in non-public areas of healthcare facilities, away from other staff members or away from patients.

Meanwhile, those providing care to the general public who are not known or suspected COVID-19 patients or working at busy staff work areas within a healthcare facility are classified as “medium risk.”

Healthcare workers who are entering a COVID-19 patient’s room; providing care for COVID-19 patient not involving or involving aerosol-generating procedures such as intubation, cough, induction procedures, bronchoscopies, some dental procedures and exams or invasive specimen collection; and collecting or handling specimen from known or suspected COVID-19 patients are considered as “high risk.”

Instead of the DOH’s proposed allowance system, the private hospital’s workers’ union are proposing the following

•Benefits such as special risk allowance (SRA) of P5,000 per month to those assigned in COVID unit should be extended amid the pandemic and provide risk allowance (RA) or actual hazard duty pay in the amount of P3,000 per month to those who are not assigned in COVID unit with monthly timely release once approved;

• Provide all hospital staff free medical and hospitalization benefits and their immediate family members, paid quarantine leaves, provision of vitamins and medical insurance and mental health consultations;

• Mandate that hospital employers in the private sector share in the PhilHealth contributions of their employees, which is the practice in the public sector;

• Income tax exemption of healthcare workers in all received benefits to augment their take-home pay;

• Strictly implement mandatory test every 15 days to ensure everyone’s safety with prompt contact tracing and implementation of safety guidelines in the public;

• Active consultation and discussion with the hospital administrations, all organizations involved, and employees groups for the guidelines and implementation of every provisions;

• To ensure every health worker gets a decent work schedule in accordance to the labor standards of eight hours in a day with mandatory 30 minutes meal break in between shifts and no forced over-time. Every hospital staff should perform reasonable workload and patient ratio with proper training on handling patients before deployment or assignment especially to COVID units, with hiring of enough staff in plantilla or regular positions;

• Continue to prescribe supplementary guidelines on the provisions of life insurance, meal, accommodation, transportation allowances with monthly timely release once approved

The DOH, on the other hand, said the singular allowance with risk variations proposal will require P50,431,024,000.

The amount required to implement the proposal is broken down into the following allocations: 87% for high risk healthcare workers, 7% for medium risk, and 6% for low risk.

Of the total P50.4 billion for the proposal, P49.4 billion will be for the singular COVID-19 allowance, P1 billion for contingency in case of a surge, and P831.06 million will be for COVID-19 sickness and death compensation of a patient. —KG, GMA News