Philippine labor unions oppose cap on overseas heath workers

President Marcos to raise yet maintain a cap on health workers deployed abroad

Philippine labor unions have opposed the government-imposed cap of 2,000 health workers allowed to leave the country yearly for employment.

The Federation of Free Workers, a national trade union with 40,000 members, said the cap was an “inherent violation” of a citizen’s right to travel, a constitutionally protected right.

“The liberty of abode and the right to travel even outside the country are fundamental rights and the same shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court,” federation president and lawyer Sonny Matula told UCA News on Sept. 30.

He said putting a cap on health workers seeking employment abroad was counter-productive and violated workers’ rights to seek employment.

“It is the right of healthcare workers to choose where they want to work — where working conditions are better and where wages are commensurate to the skills and effort they put in,” Matula added.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. assured health workers that although he would maintain the cap imposed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, he would increase the number from 2,000 to 7,500 to allow more of them to work abroad.

“As we work hard to improve the state of our healthcare system at home, let us join hands to maintain our country’s position as the gold standard when it comes to providing healthcare workers to hospitals and health facilities globally,” Marcos told Filipino nurses on Sept. 1 during the 100^th anniversary of the Philippine Nurses Association.

Matula, however, said the number of workers allowed to work abroad was not the issue but the cap itself. He also urged Marcos to ensure worker-friendly conditions for Filipino workers abroad.

“Our own health department here in the Philippines should look at their implementing rules and practices that provide slave-like conditions, particularly to our doctors and nurses,” Matula said.

Low salaries also force an exodus of health workers looking for greener pastures, Matula said.

“Our healthcare workers in both the public and private sectors have low wages to begin with. Worse, they were promised allowances to augment their income and the risks they take. But these came in trickles or never came at all,” he added.

Department of Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire justified the cap to cushion the shortage in staffing in the health sector.

“We have a shortage of around 106,000 so we could fill in the facilities all over the country, both public and private,” Vergeire told the press on Sept. 30.

Vergeire pleaded with Filipino health workers to stay and accept the government’s offer of employment.

“We’re calling on our nurses here in the country, midwives, dentists and other healthcare professionals, we have vacant plantilla positions, we can hire you,” Vergeire added.

Nurse Lilia Orendain, however, said she would leave the country because nurses like her were underpaid in the Philippines.

“Our salary in the Philippines is only 25,000 pesos [$1,250]. If we work abroad like in the Middle East, we will earn an average of $48,000. We need to finance my children’s college education, too,” Orendain told UCA News.

The Catholic Bishops’ Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People has expressed concern over the government’s cap on medical workers.

The commission’s head and Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said the cap violated numerous employment contracts and halted families’ dreams of a better life.

“We always appeal before and affirm that already existing contracts should not be suspended for deployment. If the government cannot provide a good opportunity with correct salary for our medical health workers, why prevent them from going out of the country,” Bishop Santos told UCA News.

“To persuade them to remain here the government has to improve their working conditions and security, offer better benefits, and promotion of their welfare. This is better so that they would not think of working abroad,” the prelate added.

In 2021, President Duterte set a cap of 2,000 health workers or less than half of the 13,000 healthcare workers who want to leave the country every year to seek greener pastures.

Latest News