Labor party, nurse group join hands for RH on Nurses Day

Press Release

May 15, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and a national group of nurses, the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders & Advocates International Inc. (AYNLA), joined hands in pushing for the controversial RH bill on the observance of International Nurses Day last Thursday. “We link arms with our fellow workers in the nursing profession to advance their rights and welfare. Further workers and nurses add our voices to the growing chorus of support for the RH bill,” declared Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

In commemoration of Nurses Day, AYNLA national president Alvin Cloyd Dakis stressed the importance of a national comprehensive reproductive health law in the country to address the alarming maternal deaths, huge number of clandestine abortions and rising cases of HIV in the country and the vital role of nurses addressing these issues.

AYNLA is so far the most vocal nursing organization to have supported the passage of the RH Bill in Congress. For Dakis, it is essential for nurses to provide what their patients need and give them all the options they have for their health. “By educating them through appropriate information, we can make our patients the ‘Managers of their own health’ and be empowered in their choices” he said.

The International Nurses Day is celebrated annually every May 12 in commemoration of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. AYNLA celebrated with the rest of the world in this year’s International Nurses Day by making an online awareness campaign of the event through Facebook and Twitter.

Aside from jointly pushing for the RH bill, PM and AYNLA had cooperated in exposing the problem of on the job training fees for new nurses. Magtubo attended a Senate inquiry last January on the alleged exploitation of nurses where they have to pay fees in exchange of their volunteer work in the hospitals. Together with other nurses groups, AYNLA testified to the truth of allegations that hospitals have been levying OJT fees on many unemployed nurses in the country.

“We have a lot of nurses who are unemployed in the country but we have a lot of health concerns to address, which we believe we can contribute a lot – like the much talked about reproductive health” said Reigner Jireh Antiquera, AYNLA vice chair. Antiquera saw the importance of mobilizing our vast health human resources to help in providing services for reproductive health such as health education, counseling, HIV treatment care & support, and various RH services.

In wake of Eton construction accident: Labor group calls for labor enforcement reforms

Press Release
January 28, 2011

The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection reforms in response to the accident at the Eton construction yesterday that claimed the lives of 10 workers and injured one. “This is a workplace massacre that is worse than the Makati terrorist bus bombing. Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths of 10 workers,” insisted Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

PM lambasted employers for cutting corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the lax implementation of labor and safety standards. “While capitalists were scrimping on protection for workers and DOLE was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying in the workplace,” Magtubo elaborated.

He claimed that “Accidents are not acts of divine providence that can be dismissed as unavoidable. Instead accidents are the result of unsafe acts and therefore preventable by strict enforcement of occupational safety and health and labor standards.”

“Under the regime of the DOLE’s self-assessment program, the number of labor inspectors have shrunk from around 240 to less than 200 and the number of establishments inspected plummeted from 60,000 in 2003 to just 6,000 last year. Self-assessment means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Magtubo criticized.

He recommended that “We propose that the DOLE deputize labor leaders as labor inspectors. In so doing the number of inspectors and inspections can be increase several fold overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers lives and limbs can be saved.”

Magtubo added that “DOLE must review Eton and its contractors for compliance not just with safety regulations but labor standards such as payment of minimum wages and benefits, observance of working hours and remittance of social security among others. Construction workers are among the most overworked yet underpaid of employees since they are generally unorganized.”

“The DOLE has again been caught sleeping on the job as in the case of the nurses charged by exorbitant on-the-job fees. This abusive practice could have been deterred if the DOLE had inspected hospitals and fined them appropriately,” Magtubo said.

Labor party calls for reform of employment program for nurses

Press Release
January 18, 2011

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) welcomed but called for the reform of the employment program for nurses as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday started receiving applications for RN HEALS. The group also demanded that DOLE inspect hospitals for violations of labor standards including the charging of so-called on-the-job-training fees on registered nurses.

Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, said that “Public employment programs are always a step in the right direction. Creating jobs for unemployed nurses and providing health care to rural areas is great. But RN HEALS leaves much to be desired because it fosters cheap white collar labor among less than 10% of the estimated number of unemployed registered nurses.”

PM is supporting the campaign of nursing groups for a stop to the practice of charging fees to trainee nurses. Magtubo added that “The exploitation of hundreds of thousands of young registered nurses must stop. Part of the DOLE’s mandate is the enforcement of labor laws and it must do its job in this respect. Instead of hospital owners challenging young nurses to file complaints, we demand that the DOLE make inspections of the health care facilities.”

He insists that paying nurses to be deployed in rural areas P8,000 in allowance is well below the Salary Grade 15 stipulated by law for entry-level public sector nurses. “Hazard pay, night differential and other allowances are also mandated for public sector nurses but DOLE is silent whether RN HEALS provides for such mandatory benefits,” Magtubo asserted.

“In Tunisia, a popular uprising was sparked by the desperate suicide of a 26-year old unemployed university graduate. That same hopelessness haunts the lives of more than a hundred thousand registered nurses who are unemployed and some 20,000 to 40,000 more that will be added when the next batch of nurses graduates in April. The problem of nurses who are unemployed, underemployed & abused is reaching crisis proportions and resulting in abuses like OJT fees. Meanwhile nurses who are employed are overworked but utterly underpaid,” Magtubo explained.

PM is pushing for nurses to be treated as probationary employees who are guaranteed minimum wages and other benefits plus the opportunity to become regular after the maximum of six months temporary status. “It is a triple whammy on young nurses to pay tuition fees while studying, then be denied a wage while working as a trainee and further be charged an exorbitant fee,” Magtubo declared.

“Young workers are in dire straits. Hotel and restaurant management students are being employed as trainees in the industry for no wages or below minimum labor standards. Dual tech student-workers are replacing regular workers in factories as another form of contractualization,” he clarified.

Labor party calls for stop to trainee nurse fees, asks DOLE to inspect hospitals

Press Release
January 12, 2011

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for a stop to the practice of charging fees to trainee or on-the-job-trainee (OJT) nurses in the wake of a Senate hearing yesterday on the issue. Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, attended the hearing and supported the position of nurses groups for an end to the “exploitation of hundreds of thousands of young registered nurses.”

Magtubo lambasted the representatives of hospital owners for feigning ignorance or denying the reality of the charging of OJT fees on nurses. He argued that “Instead of hospital owners challenging young nurses to file complaints, we instead call on the Department of Labor and Employment to make inspections of the hospitals and catch red-handed this pernicious and widespread practice.”

PM is pushing for trainee nurses to be treated as probationary employees who are guaranteed minimum wages and other benefits plus the opportunity to become regular nurses after the maximum of six months temporary status. “It is a triple whammy on young nurses to pay tuition fees while studying, then be denied a wage while working as a trainee and further be charged an exorbitant fee,” Magtubo asserted.

“More than a hundred thousand registered nurses are unemployed and anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 more will be added when the next batch of nurses graduates in April. The problem of nurses who are unemployed, underemployed & abused is reaching crisis proportions and resulting in abuses like OJT fees. Meanwhile nurses who are employed are overworked but utterly underpaid. This calls for protection by the government,” Magtubo explained.

PM is networking with various nurses groups to campaign for a stop to OJT fees. Magtubo added that “OJT fees on nurses are just one expression of the dire plight of young workers. Hotel and restaurant management students are being employed as trainees in the industry for no wages or below minimum labor standards. Dual tech student-workers are replacing regular workers in factories as another form of contractualization.”

“Regulating the number of nursing schools and students are just a partial solution to the problem. Nursing schools must have the facilities to train nurses on the job and as part of the curriculum to be accredited by the CHED. And then the DOLE must oversee the working conditions of trainee nurses in hospitals,” Magtubo insisted.