Cork councillors back call to reverse health-worker long covid pay cut

CORK councillors have backed a call to reverse the pay cut for healthcare workers still suffering with long covid. The cut came into force on March 31.

Elected members at this week’s council meeting backed a motion on the matter brought by East Cork Social Democrat councillor, Liam Quaide. He has worked with a number of healthcare workers who contracted the illness during the pandemic.

The motion called on the council to write to the HSE chief executive, Bernard Gloster, and Stephen Donnelly, the health minister, to seek a reversal of the suspension of the special-leave scheme of pay for healthcare workers with long covid.

After the meeting, Mr Quaide told The Echo that the decision to end the scheme, which he described as ‘crude’, meant that many of those healthcare workers with long covid would be forced to retire on medical grounds.

“They will now have to avail of standard sick leave, which has a limited life span,” said Mr Quaide.

“It will impose major financial hardship on them and put them into mortgage distress. Many are struggling as it is to keep up with their medical bills. It’s a shocking way to treat people who were celebrated as heroes by our government at the height of the pandemic. There is no clinical rationale for suspending this pay arrangement,” he said.

“Many of these healthcare workers are experiencing a severity of symptoms that has not changed in years.”

While the Government position has been to say that it wasn’t possible to prove where the healthcare workers contracted the virus, they had been paid for three years on the basis that they had been infected in the workplace.

“Many healthcare workers have documented positive covid tests that have been clearly linked to services where they were based and where there was an outbreak of the virus at the time.”

In making his call for the council to “express disappointment with the termination of this pay arrangement”, Mr Quaide said it was important that the HSE chief executive and the health minister “consider their duty-of-care obligations to direct HSE workers and Section 39 workers who have been disabled by long covid after contracting the virus in high-risk settings”.

The Department of Health said there has been extensive engagement between the parties about the conclusion of the temporary scheme, following a recommendation from the Labour Court.

“However, it has now been referred back to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) by the staff representative bodies, where the parties will engage further,” it added.

The matter was also raised by People Before Profit/Solidarity Cork North Central TD, Mick Barry, when he was speaking during the election of former health minister Simon Harris to the position of Taoiseach this week.