Heroes Without Pay? Health Workers Walk Out, Demand SRA For All

To commemorate National Heroes Day on Monday, Aug. 30, health workers from various hospitals marched to demand the release of the special risk allowance (SRA) for medical workers.

Frontliners from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), Metropolitan General Hospital, The Medical City, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and Calamba Medical Center joined simultaneous protests on Monday, Aug. 30.

The protesters, spearheaded by the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), gathered in front of the Department of Health (DOH) office in Manila before heading to the Commission on Audit (COA) office and the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Quezon City, where they held a noise barrage to protest the late release of their “long overdue” benefits under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 law.

Under the expired Bayanihan 2 Act, qualified hospital workers are entitled to an SRA of P5,000 for every 22 days of work. Last week, the Department of Budget and Management released P311.79 million for the SRA of over 20,000 public and private hospital workers.

The group sought the inclusion of all hospital employees in the coverage of the SRA as well as the removal of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III from office.

Monday’s protest, they said, is in preparation for their National Day of Action planned for the first week of September.

AHW president Robert Mendoza said all qualified health workers are entitled to at least P30,000 worth of meals, accommodation and transportation allowance from Sept. 15 to Dec. 19 last year.

According to Mendoza, the DOH should not wait for a law before giving SRA to all health workers, regardless if they are handling COVID-19 patients or not.

Mendoza said it was already agreed during a Senate hearing last week that granting of SRA will be “liberal” so all health workers should receive them.

“This has already been settled. They all agreed during the hearing that all health workers should receive their SRA. What is the DOH waiting for?” he noted.

He said since COVID-19 is now “airborne,” it no longer matter if a health workers is directly taking care of infected patients or not.

“The risk is the same if you are working in a hospital.  I don’t the virus recognizes position or location if you are in a hospital,” he maintained.

Mendoza said pronouncements that health workers are the heroes in this time of pandemic are merely lip service.

“We do not feel it because  we don’t get adequate protection from the government. Like this SRA, we are only asking for what is due us,” he added.

SLMC union president Jao Clumia said about 80 health workers in SLMC Quezon City alone walked out Monday morning to denounce how the government has been treating what they claimed to be “modern-day heroes.”

UST employees union president Donell Siazon said they are outraged by the government’s “systematic neglect” of their plight, while both the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) expressed solidarity with health workers and other frontliners who they referred to as “the true heroes of our time.”

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) secretary general Raymond Basilio joined the calls for the salary increase and immediate release of delayed benefits for health and education workers.

Booster for HCWs

For Department of Science and Technology Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) member Rontgene Solante, there is a need to revisit the policy on booster shots, at least for healthcare workers, amid the rising COVID-19 cases in the country.

“On a personal note, in my personal observation, we need to revisit giving booster, especially the HCWs who are really always exposed and the risk of getting the infection is always there,” Solante said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.