The Facebook page of a municipality in Rizal deleted its call for hiring nurses after it received backlash for the perceived meager salary it offered.
Last August 23, the Municipality of Cardona in Rizal announced it was hiring registered nurses to be assigned at its Municipal Health Office.
It was offering P13,000 for the job.
Some social media users who noticed this immediately slammed the government unit for offering an amount too small despite the high risks it poses during this health crisis. The post was later removed following the backlash.
Others managed to make screenshots of it and shared copies of it across Facebook, Twitter and the subreddit forum r/Philippines.
They lamented the still-prevailing discrimination against nurses and health care workers despite their vital role in resolving the pandemic.
“Years in the pandemic taught us that [health care workers] are the most important workers out there. Still, I just have no idea why they are not compensated justly,” one user said.
Others aired how discouraging is the low pay given their costly nursing school fees.
“Imagine spending almost a million in your nursing school then you’ll get paid 13k a month?! HAHAHA With all the acad breakdowns and sleepless nights trying to absorb all the knowledge I have to attain to become a competent nurse sa ganitong sahod,” one user said.
“As a nursing student who currently struggles every single day with the online setup, parang nakaka walang gana ituloy na lumaban everyday kung ganyan lang din naman yung madadatnan namin in the future (crying emoji),” another user wrote.
Some of them also pointed out that low pay is the main reason why many health practitioners seek opportunities overseas instead.
The inadequate compensation for health care workers had been the subject of protests and complaints since the start of the pandemic last year.
Last week, nurses and health care workers threatened to conduct a “mass resignation” due to the delay of the Department of Health to provide them their mandatory “special risk allowance” and “active hazard duty day.”
They issued this warning amid the rising COVID-19 infections in the country and hospitals reaching full capacities.
The Philippine Nurses Association later thumbed down this move, saying it will only make the situation worse in hospitals.
The DOH also hoped that they could hold a discussion to meet their demands and concerns.
READ: Mass resignation looms as hospital capacity still at ‘high risk’
Their struggles were also raised again online as they criticized Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s impassioned spiel of being overwhelmed in this health crisis.
Many doctors and nurses were infected in the pandemic and gave up their lives attending to emergency cases.
READ: Juxtaposed: Duque’s impassioned spiel and health workers’ struggles
