De Lima files bill giving ‘emergency compensation’ to health workers

Senator Leila de Lima has filed a bill seeking to provide emergency compensation to health workers who may suffer from work-related injuries and accidents.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 1793 seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 7305, also known as the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers.

De Lima, in a statement, said the measure aims to allow health workers who go on "risky" duties to enjoy "additional benefits" under the "Public Health Worker Emergency Compensation."

Called the “Expanded Magna Carta of Public Health Workers Act of 2018,” the bill entitles health workers to continue enjoying 100 percent of his/her monthly salary even after figuring in unfortunate incidents – such as permanent total disability or death —  while the health worker is discharging his or her duty.

De Lima sought the emergency compensation package to apply to public health workers who are deployed in hospitals, sanitaria, rural health centers, infirmaries, barangay health stations, clinics and other health-related establishments.

These workers, the senator noted, are deployed in "difficult, strife-torn or embattled" areas, "distressed" or "isolated" stations, prison camps, mental hospitals, radiation-exposed clinics, laboratories or disease-infested areas or in areas declared under state of calamity or emergency.

The senator also proposed to hold heads of government-owned hospitals and other public health centers and facilities and local chief executives administratively liable if they willfully circumvent or evade the benefit provision for the public health workers.

The measure would impose a fine of not less than P40,000 but not more than P80,000 or imprisonment of not more than year or both at the discretion of the court upon the conviction of  any person who willfully interferes with, restrains, or coerces any public health worker in the exercise of his/her rights, upon conviction.

According to her office, De Lima filed the bill "to ensure that public health workers receive what they truly deserve in their job."

The senator slammed the country's current health care system for being "inadequate," which she said was in part due to the "grossly disproportionate" and "inadequate number" of health workers in the country.

“This meager state of our health workers is further aggravated by the non-implementation of benefits mandated by the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers, such as overtime pay, night shift differential, on call pay and hazard pay,” she said. — Margaret laire/LayugMDM, GMA News