MANILA, Philippines 鈥� After four years, the Supreme Court (SC) has set for oral argument the question on the legality of reducing the salary of nurses in public healthcare institutions.
The oral argument on the petition filed by Ang Nars party-list on January, 2015 is scheduled on February 26, 2019 based on the high court鈥檚 advisory released Friday.
Ang Nars Party-list went to the Supreme Court in 2015 asking that it compel the government to enforce a provision under Republic Act 9173, also known as the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 that put the minimum base pay of nurses in government health institutions shall not be lower than salary grade 15.
Salary Grade 15 for civilian personnel of the national government and in first class provinces and cities is at P29,010.
Among the issues to be debated on is whether Joint Resolution No. 4 has repealed Section 32 of the Nursing Act.
The high court also wants to know if the Joint Resolution followed the procedure of a bill passed into a law and whether it has become a law if it followed the procedure.
Section 32 of the Nursing Act provides that the minimum base pay of nurses working in the public health institutions shall not be lower than salary grade 15.
A joint resolution, however, was issued by Congress, allowing the President to modify the compensation and position classification of civilian聽personnel as well as the base pay of the uniformed personnel.
After the Senate and the House of Representatives issued Joint Resolution No. 4, then President, now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 811 which among others, reduced the base pay of nurses from salary grade 15 to salary grade 11 (P20,179) while the entry base pay is salary grade 10 (18,718).
Joining the party-list group in its petition is the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation headed by Annie Geron.
Named respondents are the Executive Secretary, Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Health/gsg