Migrante Philippines echoes the call of the Filipino nurses to address their immediate workplace concerns in response to DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa’s plan of hiring unlicensed nursing graduates to fill in the government’s healthcare system workforce. What our nurses need are adequate increase in their salaries, reduction of work load and hours, and necessary protection and benefits from workplace hazards.
Herbosa need not venture on a populist approach to lift the morale of our healthcare workers. He just needs to address the fundamental problems plaguing the healthcare system.
Migrante Philippines vows to unite with our nurses in opposing the implementation of this ridiculous plan since it will pit our nurses against unlicensed nursing graduates to the detriment of their compensation and overall welfare. Exploiting their desperation, Herbosas’s plan will surely erode the labor standards and guarantees accorded to our healthworkers.
When implemented, Herbosa will further contribute to the exodus of our nurses to foreign lands. There can be no other way to stop forced migration and honor our workers but to provide them just wages, regular and decent jobs and ensure all of their labor and human rights at home. Itaas ang sahod. Trabaho sa Pinas, hindi sa labas.
