Imprudent ‘go on strike’ advice

Go on strike for better pay and working conditions.

That was the advice Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III gave in a radio interview to nurses in private hospitals amid reports the latter do not pay new nurses for their services, requiring them instead to pay training fees to gain work experience.

Considering the seriousness of that allegation, not to mention the fact that Bello is a lawyer, it was reasonable to expect him to present proof of that alleged malpractice.

Unfortunately, he did not.

As head of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), Bello could have sent labor inspectors to those private hospitals to verify those reports and, if proven true, take the proper legal action against them.

Thus, until such proof is presented, Bello’s claim of exploitation of new nurses by those hospitals cannot be given credence.

The thing that stands out most in Bello’s statements was his call for the nurses to go on strike to protest their alleged exploitation. He wants them to leave their patients and raise placards to dramatize their demands.

That call is unprecedented in the country’s labor history. There has never been an instance before that the head of the government office tasked with protecting and promo­ting the welfare of employees or workers has called on them to walk out of their jobs to demand changes in the terms and conditions of their employment.

In fact, the Dole’s mandate, among others, is to minimize or prevent work stoppages or strikes; and if the continued operation of the subject of that action is considered vital to the national interest, order the striking workers to go back to work pending the resolution of their labor dispute.

If the workers refuse to follow that order, it can call on the police to remove any barricades or fixtures that prevent the resumption of business operation.

Under ordinary circumstances, employees go on strike or barricade the work premises when there is a stalemate in collective bargaining negotiations or to protest unfair labor practices by their employer.

Bear in mind a strike or work stoppage is considered a weapon of last resort by organized labor. It is availed of only when all means of amicable settlement of labor disputes fail.

And rightly so because the adverse effects of a strike cut both ways—the company cea­ses operation and loses money, and the striking workers do not get their pay.

A strike’s success is not guaranteed. If the employer gives in to the demands, fine; if it does not and instead decides to shut down the business, the strikers may find themselves jobless.

If the COVID-19 problem the Philippines is going through at present were a war, the call to the nurses to go on strike may be likened to asking the soldiers in the battlefield to abandon their posts and refuse to return until their officers provide them with, say, better food rations or firearms.

Just imagine what would happen if those nurses decide to heed Bello’s call.

Their walkout would leave their patients unattended and, in the process, aggravate the country’s already overstretched health-care system.

Worse, some of those nurses may just get fed up with their shabby treatment and decide to join the exodus of Filipino health workers to countries that treat them as professionals who deserve full and timely payment for their services.

If Bello is really serious about promoting the welfare of those private nurses, the best way to accomplish that objective is for him to lobby with the lawmakers to quickly enact into law a pending bill that requires the salaries of nurses in private hospitals to be on a par with their counterparts in public hospitals.

Note the speed by which Congress passed the Bayanihan to Heal as One and Bayanihan to Recover as One acts when President Duterte certified them as urgent. It took less than a week to have those laws enacted.

The same approach can be taken with regard to the bill putting all hospital nurses on the same pay level regardless of the character of their employer.

Our nurses, and for that matter all health workers, deserve to be treated with dignity. They should not be forced to go to the streets or beg for what they rightfully deserve. INQ

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