Senate debates on hiring of nurses, medical professionals

Legislation permitting the government to hire nonresident workers for the next five years provoked debate in the Senate during its session yesterday following concerns on the use of manpower services to recruit the much-needed personnel.

At issue is whether the government should allow hiring of nurses and other healthcare professionals provided by manpower services as the proposed amendment by the Senate to HB 12-285 will prohibit such recruitment practice.

Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes moved for the restriction, noting that the Department of Public Health has failed to phase out personnel employed by manpower agencies despite previous instructions to do so.

“I don’t know why it still continues… I’ve wondered why nurses from manpower services are not suing the government for unequal salary,” he said.

The bone of contention is that manpower agencies get a hefty cut from the pay of these nurses, unlike those who are directly hired by DPH, he said.

The previous Legislature had pressed for its phase out because of its impact on government costs in terms of efficiency of its workforce.

Mr. Reyes stressed it results to morale problem since the salary of nurses from manpower service is too low compared to directly-hired nurses due to the deduction even though they perform the same job.

“We don’t want employees serving two masters — one the manpower services and other, their nursing supervisor or doctors,” he said.

But Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez maintained the proposed restriction could worsen the staff shortage at the Commonwealth Health Center since many of the nurses there are recruited from manpower agencies.

He disclosed renewal of the contracts of these nurses is still pending and passage of the amendment could mean they have to be laid off.

“If we’re going to restrict DPH in hiring them, we’re going to have more problems than we are expecting,” Mr. Villagomez told the session.

Study

Sen. Edward U. Maratita, on the other hand, underscored the need to assess the impact of direct hire as opposed to recruitment through manpower services as he noted the government will have to provide benefits like housing and repatriation costs if it is to hire people itself.

Because of the differences, the upper house agreed to defer action on HB 12-285. The measure is considered crucial since the sunset provision under PL 10-4 that restricted the government from hiring nonresidents, expired on Sept. 30, 2000 for agencies like DPH, Department of Public Works, Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and Office of Public Auditor.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education and Welfare chaired by Sen. Richardo S. Atalig was tasked to meet with Public Health Sec. Joseph Kevin Villagomez and heads of other affected agencies to check first before acting on the bill next week.

The House approved the proposal last week in a rush to address anticipated shortage in key personnel in government offices due to insufficient local labor pool with the required skills and training.

HB 12-285 will amend PL 10-4 which provided for the exemptions for some of the entities to extend the authority to hire nonresident workers to 2005.

Meanwhile, the Senate also approved HB 12-231 seeking to entice retirees to return to government service by not requiring them to pay back the 30 percent bonus they received upon retirement.

Mr. Villagomez amended the measure to clarify its intent since two existing laws have stipulated conditions for their re-hiring by the government. It heads back to the lower house for action on the amendment.

Other bills approved yesterday included a proposal making Division of Public Lands and its board an autonomous agency within the executive branch. It is now up for signing into law by the governor.