The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is now in talks with the Department of Health (DOH) and even lawmakers regarding the restructuring of entry level salary grade for government nurses.
During the virtual “Sulong Pilipinas: pre-SONA of the Economic Development and Infrastructure Clusters” forum on Monday, DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado said a Supreme Court (SC) ruling has prompted the government to restructure the entry level for nurses in government health institutions from salary grade 11 to salary grade 15.
The High Court, in an en banc session on October 8, 2019, made a decision penned by Senior Justice Antonio Carpio ruling in favor of the Ang Nars Party-list declaring as valid Section 32 of the Philippine Nursing Act.
Section 32 of the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 states that “in order to enhance the general welfare, commitment to service and professionalism of nurses, the minimum base pay of nurses working in public health institutions shall not be lower than salary grade 15 prescribed under Republic Act. No. 6758, otherwise known as the “Compensation and Classification Act of 1989”: Provided, that for nurses working in local government units, adjustments to their salaries shall be in accordance with Section 10 of the said law.”
Avisado said DBM and DOH have prepared a joint memorandum circular for this purpose.
“Please note that except for that decision on increasing the entry level, there is no other mention of increasing the salaries of other salary grades,” he said.
Avisado said DBM is discussing with Congress “to look into its totality.”
He said they are in talks with lawmakers on government nurses’ salary structure, from entry level to Nurse 7, which is salary grade 24.
“But certainly not to increase their salary because there is no law that increases it and also at the same time, it is not a part of the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court decision talked only of the entry level, nothing more and nothing less,” he added. (PNA)
