GenSan job order nurses to get P9,000 salary hike

Good news! Job order nurses at the city government-run Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital (DJPRH) will get significant increases in their salaries next month. 

Glenville Gonzalez, DJPRH department head, said Tuesday the local government is currently finalizing its implementation effective Aug. 15 providing new salary scale for job order employees. 

He said it will specifically cover the city hospital’s nurses, medical specialists, and medical officers.

Gonzalez said they pushed for the upgrading of their basic salaries to provide them with proper compensation amid the continuing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. 

He said it is also aimed at preventing them from considering other employment options or offers and eventually resigning from the hospital. He admitted that since January, some 25 job order nurses have already resigned for various reasons, among them the higher salary rates in other hospitals in the area. 

“We can’t stop them from transferring to other hospitals with higher or better offers and it is really a valid reason if they want to resign,” he told members of the city council during its session. 

DJPRH currently has a total of 97 job order nurses while over 30 are regular or permanent employees.

Gonzalez, who was called by the city council to shed light on the reported resignations of DJPRH personnel and other related concerns, said job order nurses currently receive a monthly salary of 17,099. 

He said such rate was among the highest in the area for several years but other hospitals offered higher rates when the pandemic started. 

He admitted, however, that it was much lower than the basic rate for permanent Nurse 1 positions, which increased to PHP35,575 last year. 

Gonzalez said they requested the city’s human resource management and development office to review the salary scale of their job order workers and it eventually came out with new proposed rates. 

He said City Mayor Ronnel Rivera approved the increase in December last year but was not included in this year’s budget, prompting them to push for its funding and implementation effective Aug. 15. 

Under the new salary scale, he said job order nurses will receive a basic salary of PHP26,192.10, with an increase of over PHP9,000. 

The salaries of medical specialists will increase from PHP40,603.86 to PHP46,064.04 while those for the Medical Officer III from PHP35,218.92 to PHP43,439, he said. 

He said such rates exclude the mandatory benefits and incentives for medical and health care workers. 

“We also proposed for their inclusion in the giving of overtime pay,” Gonzalez added. (By Allen Estabillo, PNA)