Sorsogon gov’t nurses to receive salary hike

By Connie Calipay

The Sorsogon provincial government has started implementing a budget circular increasing the salaries of nurses working in public hospitals as part of the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 5, which takes effect this month.

Gov. Francis Escudero said 139 nurses deployed in nine public hospitals run by the provincial government will be the first recipients of this new round of salary increase, in accordance with Republic Act 11466, or the Act Modifying the Salary Schedule for Civilian Government Personnel and Authorizing the Grant of Additional Benefits and for Other Purposes, signed by President Duterte in January 2020.

“Paunang makakatanggap ng dagdag na sahod ang ating mga nurses mula sa mga pampublikong ospital dito sa lalawigan. Malaking tulong ito lalo na sa panahong ito at higit kailan ay kailangan nila ang dagdag na sweldo dahil bugbog din naman sila sa dami ng trabaho at pag-aaruga sa mga Sorsoganon gawa ng pandemya,” Escudero said.

Sorsogon has one provincial hospital, four district hospitals and four medicare hospitals, which are all International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certified.

The Human Resources Department of the provincial government is only awaiting the guidelines from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the implementation of the third tranche of salary increases covering employees holding permanent items.

Salvador Mendoza, Sorsogon information officer, in an interview, said based on the Sorsogon Human Resources Department records as of December 2021, there are some 1,004 plantilla personnel in various offices under the provincial government.

Asked why nurses come first in the list of pay hike recipients, Mendoza said the guidelines for this are now ready and already due for implementation.

"So from Salary Grade (SG) 11 they will jump to SG 15," Mendoza said. (PNA)