Filipino nurse ‘trapped’ by COVID-19 overseas deployment ban
April Glory was due to start working as a nurse in the UK in March. After the Filipino Government banned overseas deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, April is now “trapped” at home with no job and unable to help anybody. But why?
After seven years of working overseas, leaving her son to be raised by his grandparents, April hoped to settle down in the Philippines once and for all. “This is where I grew up. This is where I met the father of my kid. This is where I feel very happy” she says. But temporary contracts, low pay and unsafe working conditions led her to once again look overseas.
April was due to start working at Birmingham Children’s Hospital on 21st March, but days before, the Filipino government placed a ban on the deployment of overseas health workers (OHW’s) during the pandemic, stating that they needed their health workers to help in the country:
“In compliance with national and inter-agency directives, the deployment of Filipino health care workers shall be strictly regulated to prioritize and provide support to the health care needs of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such regulation shall be lifted as soon as the pandemic is declared to be under control.”
— Philippines Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) on 20th March
Despite this, April finds herself unemployed.
April left her job at a private hospital in February ahead of her deployment. When she tried to get it back, she was told they were over-staffed and did not need her. The government hospitals (where COVID-19 patients are sent) are offering work, but only on temporary contracts of 2–3 months and at low pay. With mouths to feed, April tried to get work in a call centre instead. Now, after two months of unemployment she says funds are very low.
The catch-twenty-two
April’s application to work in the UK has cost £1,500 excluding flights. On a nurse’s wages of £200 a month, she had been saving for some time and has been told she will not be reimbursed.
However, if April was already working abroad she would have been a member of the Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA) and entitled to a meagre £150 of assistance from the Filipino Government.
Look: Thousands of Filipino health workers are speaking out on Twitter using the hashtags #NoToHCWDeploymentBan and #PrisoNurse:
Why do so many Filipino health workers go overseas?
It’s estimated by the union Filipino Nurses United (FNU) that whilst there are around 90,000 nurses employed full-time in the Philippines, many more — between 200,000–300,000 Filipino nurses are employed overseas. According to Jocelyn Andamo, Secretary-general of FNU, remittances from OHW’s makes up around 17% of the GDP.
“We Filipino nurses have been exported by the government for decades, now they are banning nurses from leaving while they do not provide the protection…compensation and job security for nurses.”
— Jocelyn Andamo
Contractualization
One of the largest push factors for Filipino medical workers is contractualization. Instead of being employed permanently and on a salary, government hospitals will contract staff for a few months at a time.
For April, who has a son to send to school and a family to feed, it’s a choice between three years’ contract in the UK or three months in the Philippines on basic pay before finding herself unemployed again.
Not only this, but Jocelyn says there is barely any difference between the salary of an experienced nurse and a newly qualified nurse. The lack of pay and opportunities for development in the Philippines has created a vicious cycle, and now the World Health Organization are calling for “urgent” investment in nursing after estimating a shortfall of 249,843 nurses by 2030 if something is not done:
“The Philippine Government, as well as the private sector will need to address issues on uncoordinated production and inequitable distribution by promoting decent jobs and local opportunities for career development, if they are to retain adequate number of appropriately trained nurses for the needs of the health system,”
— Drs. Tauhidul Islam and Socorro Escalante, acting WHO Representatives for the Philippines.
“An insult to our profession”
At the start of the pandemic, nurses and other medical professionals in the Philippines were asked to volunteer in the fight back against COVID-19 for around £8 per day. The Department of Health were soon placed under pressure to go back on this decision and instead offered the standard pay for a government worker. However, this still doesn’t compare to what a medical worker could earn overseas — even with the added £8 a month in hazard pay.
“It is not safe here”
President Duterte said the matter of safety of medical staff abroad was part of his decision for imposing the travel ban. In the UK, 25 Filipino medical staff have reportedly died.
April says it’s a risk she’s willing to take,
“I don’t know how they say it is safe here in the Philippines when all we hear from friends who are working in hospitals is that they are recycling the PPE. They are washing the face masks. This is not right!”
1 in 5 cases
According to the FNU, 1 in 5 cases of COVID-19 are of health workers in the Philippines. Jocelyn says more and more medical staff are becoming patients themselves. With staff shortages, she says it’s not always possible for those with symptoms to isolate for the full 14 days before they are back working on the frontline. Not only this, but a lack of PPE has lead to medical staff recycling masks and gloves. April says,
“We are not safe in the UK, nowhere is safe right now, but the truth is we are willing to take that risk
“In the UK, we will be taken care of unlike here in the Philippines. It’s a shame to say that”.
Watch the full interview with April Glory and Jocelyn Andamo here:
