CH workers insist on hazard pay, seek reconsideration

CEBU, Philippines — Two Cebu City employees filed a motion for reconsideration on the City Legal Office’s decision dismissing the hazard pay for public health workers (PHW).

Dr. Alice Utlang and Annalyn Calungsod, who both requested for the release of hazard pay, said they are entitled to receive the pay.

They said Mayor Edgardo Labella has authorized them to claim the hazard pay based on their approved letter-request on October 28, 2019.

“The inquiry for legal opinion was not necessary since the authority to claim hazard was already approved by Honorable Mayor Edgardo Labella,” the motion read.

“As a matter of courtesy, the City legal office should have supported the act of the city’s highest authority who acted with due prudence on the requests that landed on his office especially those matters pertaining for the benefits of employees. Denying authority to claim the hazard pay through this legal opinion is a blatant contradiction to the good act of the Honorable Mayor in approving the said authority,” it added.

It can be recalled that the legal office denied their request after the Office of the City Accountant and Human Resource Development Office sought legal opinion on the matter.

Lawyer Rey Gealon, city legal officer, said the two cannot avail of hazard pay.

“Law and jurisprudence dictates that the reckoning for a public health worker to be entitled to hazard pay must be that of her actual assignment in the work areas enumerated under the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (RIRR) and not by mere Department of Health (DOH) certification which was issued in her favor only on May of this year,” he said earlier.

Calungsod and Utlang, who used to head the Department of Veterinary Marine Fisheries (DVMF), were reassigned to the Market Operations Division (MOD) and the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center (CREMDEC) on July 29 and July 10, 2019 respectively.

The certification of the DOH secretary dated May 2019 covers the personnel of DVMF.

Gealon, however, said the certification has ceased to be valid since Utlang and Calungsod are already under the offices of CREMDEC and MOD.

Citing Section 7.1.4(c) of the RIRR of RA 7305 (The Magna Carta of Public Health Workers), he said the mayor may grant hazard pay only if the employee is working in a hazardous work assignment.

He also cited the case of Gawad vs Abad, which states that hazard pay may be granted when “the nature of their duties and responsibilities, their actual services and location of work, expose them to great danger, occupational risks, perils to life and physical hardships.”

“Not in this situation of Dr. Alice Utlang. The location of CREMDEC is far from these circumstances and, in fact, a breath of fresh air for the good doctor,” said Gealon.

Utlang is now the CREMDEC head designate for campus development.

“As for Dr. Ultang, the fact that she was assigned to CREMDEC does not negate the fact that her work assignment exposes her to great danger, occupational risk, perils to life and physical hardships. The city ordinance creating CREMDEC should not be the sole basis for determining the nature of her assignment but the actual duties that she undertakes,” the motion read.

Aside from hazard pay, they are also asking the city government to shoulder the necessary expenses of the reassignment in compliance with Section 3 of R.A. 7305.

They said the reason for their reassignment was not even mentioned in the letter, which ran contrary to Section 6 of RA 7305.

The section states that PHW shall not be transferred or reassigned, except when made in the interest of public service, in which case, the employees shall be informed in writing.  KQD (FREEMAN)