Health workers shave heads, demand wage hike

Thirty health workers of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) shaved their heads yesterday to dramatize their demand for P3,000 across-the-board increase in salary of all government employees.

Jossel Ebesate, president of All UP Workers Union, said the hair-shaving was their answers to the government’s "apathetic response" to the plight of state workers who continue to suffer from the rising cost of living and services in the country.

"We have utility workers who received a monthly salary of P5,062. This is not enough considering that our poverty threshold now is P16,000 a month," noted Ebesate, a head nurse at the PGH’s Department of Nursing Research and Development.

Yesterday’s protest action was 2,000-strong union by the PGH Physicians Association (PPA), composed of around 500 doctors.

PPA representative Dr. Mike Gozon warned that more doctors and nurses would go abroad if their compensation and working condition would not improve.

Gozon claimed that while PGH doctors’ salary is higher than those in other private hospitals, their workload is considerably heavier.

"When I graduated in 1999, doctors were applying here so they were able to choose the best among them. But now there are many residency slots that are difficult to fill up," he maintained.

The hair-shaving was conducted during the lunch break from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in front of the PGH. A noise barrage of streamer-toting protesters was held afterwards.

Ebesate added the shaven heads also symbolize the near desperation, or "almost like a death-row convict" state of government workers under the Arroyo administration.

The 3,000 salary hike demand of the workers was written on their cleanly shaven heads.

"Yes, there was a fiscal crisis, as a matter of fact the problem of uncontrollable budget deficit by the national government has started way back in 1981," he said.

He added that this was "largely due to overwhelming graft and corruption by high-ranking officials and their cronies and the liberalization policies enforced by the government."