Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III is set to sign bilateral labor agreements with the United Kingdom and Germany to open additional work destinations for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

This was announced by Bello during the second day of the Duterte Legacy Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City on Tuesday.

"Tonight I am going to fly to the UK... I am going to sign a labor agreement that will open again additional work destinations for our OFWs. From UK London, I will fly to Germany, Berlin for another bilateral agreement," he said.

"Every now and then the Ambassador of Germany keeps asking me, "can you send more nurses and health care workers to Germany? `` I told her, Your Excellency, I'm sorry... there is a demployment cap of 7,000 per year so I cannot give you more than 7,000," he added.

Amid the deployment ceiling, Bello admitted that most nurses would rather work in other countries than in the private hospitals in the Philippines.

"If our nurses were to choose, they would rather work in Germany than work in St Luke's. Do you know how much is their salary there, less than the minimum wage>" he said.

"I hope these private hospitals are listening today. Many of our private hospitals are not paying our healthcare workers what is (prevailing) under our minimum wage law. There are some instead of paying their salary, it is the healthcare workers who pay them for training fee," said Bello.

"There is a very beautiful hospital, they have positron emission tomography (PET) scan. You... enter the PET scan for only five to 10 minutes, you pay the hospital 121,000 pesos and yet the nurse or the medical worker who is assisting you in that PET scan process is just earning 12,000 pesos a month," he added.

Because of this, Bello encouraged nurses or healthcare workers to demand for their rightful claim and "go on a strike" if the hospital did not give them minimum wage.

"My statement was you demand for your rightful claim as workers. If they do not give you, if they did not give you minimum wage as provided under the law go on strike, let see if these private hospitals: the Medical City, Makati Med, St. Luke's can continue their operation if there (are) no healthcare workers. It's high time, if you're listening, assert your rights," he said. Robina Asido/DMS