DOH rolls out new allowances based on COVID-19 risk
By Lanz Ethan Galvan
To streamline the disbursement of Special Risk Allowances (SRAs) to healthcare workers, the Department Of Health (DOH) on January 20 announced the creation of the One COVID-19 Allowance (OCA), which will provide a single allowance for medical workers based on their COVID-19 exposure classification. This compensation system was criticized by health workers stating that it was discriminatory.
The new system
Under the new scheme, the DOH will compensate health workers commensurate with the amount of risk they are exposed to specifically based on the type of facility they work in and the nature of their work.
According to DOH undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergerie, the new compensation system would be “more inclusive, transparent, and make the distribution of SRAs more efficient as it would consolidate the active hazard duty pay, meals, accommodation, and transportation allowance, and special risk allowance as a single payout”.
In this policy, those who will be deemed high risk would be given Php 9,000 while those who would be classified as moderate and low risk will be provided Php 6,000 and Php 3,000 respectively.
The DOH said that these risk classifications would be based on guidelines outlined in DOH Administrative Order (AO) 2022–0001 which would likewise be used in allocating and prioritizing personal protective equipment (PPE), COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and other benefits.
What the frontliners have to say
Despite this, the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) and Filipino Nurses United (FNU) branded the program as “discriminatory and divisive” as it disregards the fact that healthcare workers, regardless of their workplaces, were equally under high risk.
“AO-2022–0001 is an unjust insult to all health workers as it sidelines their sacrifices by differentiating the amount of risk pay each health worker receives, ‘’ the AHW said.
Additionally, the alliance also asserted that to win the war against the pandemic “each health workers’ role must be recognized by providing adequate and equitable compensation for their dedication and commitment as frontliners”.
Consequently, the FNU said that the singular-allowance policy was an unjust cost-cutting measure that simply highlighted the government’s low regard for the sacrifice and dedication exerted by frontliners during the pandemic.
DOH standing its ground
Amidst these criticisms, Vergeire defended the agency’s new policy and said that there was never any intent for the system to be discriminatory adding that it was simply meant “to streamline everything and make transactions more efficient.”
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III echoed Vergerie’s stance and said that those directly catering to and in contact with COVID-19 cases deserve a bigger amount since they are at a higher risk for exposure compared to health workers not caring for COVID-19 cases.
In line with the DOH’s single allowance policy, the House of Representatives had also approved a measure that seeks to grant continuous allowances and benefits to healthcare workers based on their risk exposure categorization.
Under the Public Health Emergency Benefits for Health Workers Act, which moved forward on the same day as the DOH’s new policy was unveiled, the government would be mandated to provide an SRA to all health workers for every month of service during a public health emergency on top of compensation for those who contract COVID-19 or other diseases while in the line of duty.
