Walnga

Business Insight
Monday; October 21-, 2OLg

Congress urged to act

on nurses' pay hike
BY WEI{DELL VrcIUA
ANAKALUSUGAN patty-list
' Rep. Mike Defensor yesterday
urged Congress leaders to Pass
a joint tesolution authorizing an
increase io the base pay of nutses
in the public sector, follorving a Su-
preme Coutt tuling upholding the
validity of dre PbiliPpine Nwsing
' Lct of 2002.
' The recent SC decision bumPed
up to Salary Grade 15 f30,531),
from Salary Gmde 11 ("20,754),
the minimum pay of nutses re
tained by national government,
The SuDreme Court earlv this
month ried on a petition 6led
in 2015 by the patty-list grouP
Ang Nars which said governmenr
nurses were relegated to salarY
grades 10 Il when they are en-
rirled to Salarv Grade 15 undet the
Philippine Nrusing A ctof 2002 ot
RepubJic Act 9173. Despite favor-
ing the nuses, dre SC said it cannot
force governmeot to imPlement
the salary hike without a seParate
law providing for budget.
Defensor, a vice chairman of
t}te House committee on health,
said, "The House and the Senate .

mostly in hospitais run by the

Depattment of Health. See CONGRESS> PageB3

CONGRESS
have the option to pass a joint
resolution pufting into effect the
higher starting pay of P30,531 for
nurses employed by the national
government."
Nutses employed by local gov
etnments ate also expected to ben-
elit from t}le ruJing, though their
highet entryJevel paywould be less
than P30,531, and would instead
depend on how big the province,
city or municipality is.
. Defensor said a joint resoiution
on
is one apprcach, and depending
the overall cost, Congtess could
also simply authorize the sourcing
of the money from the lumP sum
-.r\.
miscellaneous persoonel benefits
tund @IPBF) in the General AP-
propdations Act.
He saidCongress did the same
thing in 2017, wher it passed a
joirt resolution authorizing
hcrease in the base payof m itary
and uniformed personnel, and
sowcing the cash from the MPBF.
"Out sense is, Congress is ready
to implement the improved com-
pensation fot nunes, as ptovided
for by law and upheld by the Su-
preme CourL It is iust a question
of how best to do it," Defensor
said.
"In any case, fof us to be able to
fund the pay increase, the House
committee on appropdations
to ascertain the exffa money te_
quired, and Malacaiang, through
the Department of Budget and
Management, may have to ceitii/
the availabiJiry of funds," Defen-
the sor said.
Defensor said another way is for
Congress to just indude the higher
remunention fot nwses in the new
Salary Standardization Law (SSL)
that President Roddgo Duterte
himself wants passed.
In his fourth state of the nation
address last July, Duterte urged
Coogress to pass a new versioo
of the SSL meant "to increase the
salaries of naflonal government
workers, including teachers and
has

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