Good day!

We are ____________. We are a non-stock/non-profit organization advocating the ap-

proval of the bill entitled Magna Carta for Private Health Workers into a law. Our focus is to alle-
viate the minimun labor standards concerning the nurses and other health workers in the private
setting. We believe that it is high time to give attention to the health workers in private institu-
tions to make them at least at par as regards the statutory benefits given to their counterparts in
the public sector.
Let it be know that this letter is a formal announcement of our undying support to the said
bill. We humbly implore our lawmakers to consider this letter when it is their time to vote for the
passage of the bill.
The present and previous administrations focused on the outcry of the public sector to al-
ter the status quo. This pattern created a precedent which, unfortunately, placed aside the private
sector. We know for a fact that in an employer-employee relationship, employees are placed on
an asymmetrical environment where they are placed on a lower bargaining standpoint as com-
pared to the employers. As such, it is imperative to enact laws in order to protect the rights of
these employees.
To have a better understanding of the urgency to pass the aforementioned bill into a law,
we would cite certain laws, statutes, and Constitutional provisions to support our stand.
First, R.A. 7305 known as the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers was passed in the
early 1992. For almost 3 decades, a set of rules embodied in a piece of legislation existed without
the passage of the same rules in the private sector. There are huge factors that created this gap
which made it difficult to craft a central source of benefits and rights encompassing numerous
private institutions. The central source being the magna carta, its primary purpose is to centralize
and create a uniform of rules governing all the health workers in private institutions. As such, it
calls for the creation of a single body which would ensure that the rights and benefits of these
employees are observed. In the public sector, the Secretary of Health is exclusively named by the
law as the one to ensure that R.A. 7305 is observed and implemented.
To bolster our advocacy, the 1987 Constitution (hereinafter: Constitution) - the Supreme
law of the land, expressly recognized labor as the primary social economic force. As such, the
government shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare. In addition, the Consti-
tution provided that the employees shall enjoy, among others, the security of tenure and a just
and humane conditions of work. Furthermore, the employees are entitled to a living wage which
means that their personal and family needs must be met by a sufficient wage. In its own study,
the Department of Labor and Employment discovered that the average salary for an entry level
nurse in the private sector is roughly around P10,000 which is far from the proposed entry level
salary in the Magna Carta for private health workers which is pegged at P30,000. The legislators
aim to boost the performance of the nurses and to simultaneously prevent them from leaving the
Philippines to seek jobs abroad. It is a fact that the salary of a worker is his top consideration for
staying in his job. As such, the law itself regarded wage as sacrosanct and cannot be deprived
from a worker except for some instances.
The plight of the employees in the private sector needs to be addressed with urgency as
much as when the State heeded the requests of the public sector. Health workers are to be ac-
corded with benefits and rights commensurate to their efforts in the performance of their duties.
The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health conscious-
ness among them and in such pursuit, the State shall take into consideration the welfare of the
people who are providing the balance in the health of the society in general.