Cork nurses with long covid facing pay cuts in December

A group of Cork nurses with long covid gave a presentation to Oireachtas members and staff in the Dáil recently, as their pay is set to be cut from the end of this year.

The Department of Health and HSE has confirmed that the final extension of the temporary Long Covid scheme will expire on December 31.

After that date, more than 120 healthcare workers currently availing of this scheme will be transferred to the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme, meaning a nurse who currently earns €50,949 per annum will reduce to half pay from April 1, 2026, and onto Illness Benefit of €12,974 per annum.

“The vast majority of these 159 healthcare workers are female and have mortgages and medical bills and out of pocket expenses for appointments,” the INMO said.

Workers have been represented in the WRC and Labour Court by their unions, but “the Government has not accepted covid as an occupational disease causing injury to healthcare workers because of workplace exposure”, despite the European Commission recommending that they do so.

Applause

Social Democrat TD Liam Quaide told The Echo: “We all remember that earnest round of applause healthcare workers received in the Dáil in March 2020 as the country was gripped by the pandemic — and much of the workforce was directed to retreat to safety at home.

“That bualadh bos rings hollow for many healthcare workers who contracted the virus in high-risk healthcare settings, often without adequate PPE, prior to vaccinations — and who went on to develop a debilitating, life-changing condition known as long covid.

“They have gone from leading active, dynamic lives to being afflicted with debilitating fatigue after modest levels of activity and a range of other symptoms including vertigo, nerve pain, and brain fog.”

He explained that treatments for long covid are extremely limited and generally help manage or cope with symptoms, rather than alleviate them, and that despite the sacrifices these healthcare workers made in hospital wards or residential settings, they have faced an ongoing struggle for financial security.

Arguing

“For the past four to five years, a cohort of healthcare workers have been in receipt of their basic salary — a temporary arrangement extended through the Labour Court. At intervals of six months to a year, the government threatens to withdraw this payment — arguing that they have extended the hand of generosity enough, and that standard sick leave will suffice.

“This maintains workers in a state of chronic stress, repeatedly waiting for their financial security to end and fearing they may not be able to pay their mortgages. At the end of June, Minister Carroll MacNeill again extended the payment until December — and this is meant to be the final extension.”

Mr Quaide added that workers have been represented in the WRC and Labour Court by their unions, but “the fight at each interval is taking a huge toll”, calling on the government to recognise long covid as an occupational injury so that the staff can have financial security.