state employees without medical coverage sentenced to get into debt

Assistance for medical expenses was suspended in January of this year and now many workers at the Clark Development Corporation cannot afford surgeries or get medicine. The labor department promised to take care of the situation, but the union is asking that the previous conditions be restored.

Manila () – Some workers at the Clark Development Corporation (CDC), a state public works company, incurred debts of thousands of pesos to pay for medical expenses, after their national contract was revised in January and health insurance was abolished. health.

Michael Sotto, 45, a 25-year employee of Clark, which specifically deals with the development of the Clark Special Economic Zone in Central Luzon, exhausted his union pension funds to pay for hospital expenses. Sotto, who was from the building maintenance and installation division, told the Philippine news site rapper who received a fortnightly salary of 9,500 pesos (160 euros), which was reduced to 2,500 (42 euros) once the loan installments were discounted. “I need medicine, my family needs food. What I earn is not enough,” she said. “They cut our salary, they take away our benefits, our subsidies. What will become of us?” he added, explaining that he is looking for other occasional jobs and asking friends and relatives for help to get gauze and medicine for an infection in the foot.

Michael Sotto is not an isolated case among CDC employees. As the value of their salaries fell due to inflation, several workers demanded the return of health insurance and other benefits that were abolished on January 15. On that date, the new remuneration and job classification system approved by the Commission for the Governance of State-owned and controlled companies entered into force.

Eric Jiménez, head of communication for the CDC, has to undergo a bypass operation for which one million pesos (16,780 euros) is needed: the Pampanga Press Club is raising funds because Jiménez was left without medical coverage.

After a workers’ strike on January 16, the undersecretary of the labor department, Bienvenido Laguesma, took action and ordered the CDC to create a guarantee deposit for employees. However, they rejected the proposal through the Access union (Association of Concerned Employees of the CDC), demanding the reinstatement of all their previous benefits.

So far, the labor department has not called a conference to resolve the dispute. “All we want is to get back what was ours,” Access president Randy Gomez said. “We don’t know how long it will take. Do we just want to tell each other to try not to get sick? For many workers, Gomez continued, it is “literally a matter of life and death.”

The CDC’s human resources officer said yesterday that the company intends to abide by decisions made by the labor department “to prevent a strike from damaging Clark’s reputation as a top investment destination.”

“Strikes, as well as general meetings and lunchtime marches, create the disturbing impression that a strike has already been declared against. It is important that the CDC take steps to prevent potential investors from deciding not to invest in the company,” he added.