MANILA, Philippines—A day after government announced that it would be recruiting nurses for rural health work, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) was swamped with more than 15,000 applicants, a labor official said on Tuesday.
DoLE spokesperson Nicon Fameronag said that as of 1.42 p.m. on Tuesday, 15,858 online applicants had registered for the 10,000 slots of the RN Heals employment program.
“This (figure) is just for one day and a half. It does not even include the walk-in applicants in our regional offices,” Fameronag said.
This was not surprising as news about the DoLE’s employment program had been disseminated widely by the news media, he said.
There are an estimated 100,000 unemployed nurses in the country.
Fameronag said the 10,000 nurses being recruited through RN Heals would be deployed to the poorest localities around the country.
Unlike a similar nurse employment program in 2010 that hired nurses for only six months, RN Heals will employ nurses for one year.
“They will get an allowance of P8,000 monthly and an additional P2,000 from the local government unit where they are assigned,” Fameronag said.
They will also have PhilHealth medical insurance coverage and group insurance from the Government Service Insurance System, according to DoLE.
Under the government guidelines, DoLE will recruit and select the nurses while the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development will decide where to deploy them.
Applicants should be physically and mentally fit, licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission, and preferably by residents of the area where he or she would be deployed.
The government would begin deploying the nurses chosen for the program by February 11, Fameronag said.
However, the Partido ng Manggagawa labor group said the RN Heals program needed some reforms. It also asked the DoLE to inspect hospitals “for violations of labor standards, including the charging of so-called on-the-job-training fees on registered nurses.”
“RN Heals leaves much to be desired because it fosters cheap white-collar labor among less than 10 percent of the estimated number of unemployed registered nurses,” said PM chairman Renato Magtubo.
He said paying nurses P8,000 for work in rural areas would be “well below the Salary Grade 15 stipulated by law for entry-level public sector nurses.”
“Hazard pay, night differential, and other allowances are also mandated for public sector nurses but DoLE is silent whether RN Heals provides for such mandatory benefits,” Magtubo said.
“In Tunisia, a popular uprising was sparked by the desperate suicide of a 26-year-old unemployed university graduate. That same hopelessness haunts the lives of more than 100,000 registered nurses who are unemployed and some 20,000 to 40,000 more that will be added when the next batch of nurses graduates in April,” he said.
At least 84,000 jobs will be up for grabs in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines this year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said.
DoLE spokesperson Nicon Fameronag said BPO leaders told the labor department that they would need an estimated 84,000 new employees in 2011 as the industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The BPO industry includes call centers, legal and medical transcription, accounting services, software development and animation, among others services for overseas principals.
To help fill up the projected vacancies, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) will offer a free six-month training course for prospective BPO workers.
Graduates of the course will all be absorbed by BPO companies, Fameronag said.
P20M for training
"(Tesda) has already allotted P20 million (US$456,900) for the training of workers. That training is going to be free. And there is an assurance from the BPO sector that they will absorb the graduates," he added.
Fameronag said interested applicants can visit Tesda or its regional offices if they want to attend the course.
"They should at least have the basic English speaking skills, while those who want to go into medical transcription should have background in medical matters," Fameronag said.
"Maybe our nurses who are out of work could take this. We have an estimated 100,000 nurses who are unemployed," he added.
The DoLE earlier estimated that the country would produce at least one million new jobs annually until 2016, the end of the term of office of President Aquino.
The estimates are based on the projection of the National Economic Development Authority that the economy would grow by six to seven percent annually," Fameronag said.
"If we maintain that economic growth rate, the DoLE estimates that we would have 1.153 million new jobs every year," he added.
For 2010, the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) monitored 1.011 million new jobs as of October, or a 2.8 percent year-on-year increase.
"Total employed persons increased to 36.489 million from 35.478 million a year ago indicating a net addition or new employment generation of 1.011 million," BLES said.
