BACOLOD Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. has urged the City Mayor’s Office to professionalize the hiring of health workers in the city.

Gamboa, chairperson of the City Council committee on human rights, said Friday, September 17, 2021, that he will file a resolution addressed to Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Wednesday next week seeking additional funds for health workers.

He said the health workers that were hired by the city are currently either job orders or plantilla casuals, whose benefits are limited without hazard pay, among others.

“This is also one of the reasons that some of our nurses and other health workers resigned from their jobs because of their limited benefits while they risk their lives in this time of pandemic,” he added.

Gamboa said nurses should be hired through contract of service so that their salary will be based on their actual professional salary including benefits.

“This time, the city government should appropriate a budget for our nurses and health workers because they are our frontliners assigned to various barangay health centers and government medical facilities,” Gamboa said.

Moreover, Gamboa will also make an appeal to the private hospitals in the city to provide extra benefits for their health workers that are commensurate with their job descriptions.

He added some of the nurses from the private hospitals were also complaining of their working conditions, transportation and lack of medical supply.

The hospitals should not charge health workers for their medical gear or supply, the councilor added.