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UNIONS HAVE CALLED on the Minster for Health to extend the Covid Special Leave with Pay (SLWP) scheme to ensure frontline workers suffering with Long Covid symptoms continue to be supported.
From 1 July, the SLWP scheme will remain in place for new cases of Covid-19, but only for the length of their self-isolation. Frontline workers who have been out sick for months due to infections they picked up at work will be cut off from the scheme.
The National Joint Council of ICTU Healthcare Unions said healthcare workers have been receiving letters from their employer informing them that their special leave with pay will cease on 1 July.
Unions said this moves comes despite public assurances from Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Conference that no healthcare worker would face a financial cliff edge at the end of June.
One nurse who spoke to The Journal said her symptoms have improved since she first caught Covid in April 2020 while working in a Covid ward, but she is “still living a shadow of my previous life”.
“I have brain fog, fatigue, migraines, tinnitus, muscle aches, palpitations,” she said. “I just have no spontaneity in life, if I plan something I have to be mindful of not using up my energy in the days beforehand.
“I’m so young and to not be able to do simple things like plan to meet a friend for a drink is so disheartening. I used to be fit and healthy, running 5k and doing long shifts running around all day, now I can manage gentle yoga and an easy walk but that’s it.”
She said if her access to the scheme ceases at the end of this week she will have to rely on her general sick leave of 24 weeks over four years.
“If I use up those 24 weeks I’m snookered for the next four years,” she said. “I’d have no sick leave if I got the vomiting bug in the hospital in a year’s time so I wouldn’t be paid for the days out.”
Another nurse who got Covid during the 2021 winter wave said her life has been “massively impacted” over the last 16 months.
“I have a wide range of symptoms, that includes tachycardia, shortness of breath, fatigue which is absolutely crippling, brain fog, nerve pain, joint pain, muscle pain,” she said.
“A 15 minute walk is about the most I can manage, if I go to Tesco I need to lie down when I get home, if I go for a shower I need to lie down afterwards, I just have to plan every day out so that I don’t overdo it.”
She said when frontline workers with Long Covid heard the news that the special leave payment would cease it “broke all of us”.
“I couldn’t go back to work now, I would have been a super organised person before but with the brain fog now I have post-its everywhere to remind me of things, if I put on the oven I have to set a timer so I don’t forget there’s something in there,” she said. “I wouldn’t trust myself around patients at the moment.”
The nurse said she had heard some government ministers speaking about the Critical Illness Protocol as a potential alternative for frontline workers with Long Covid.
The protocol provides the basis for access to six months on full pay and six months on half pay in a four-year rolling period in the event that a staff member is diagnosed with a critical illness or serious physical injury.
However she said because Long Covid is a relatively new illness, there is no guarantee that this scheme would cover her.
“I just think they should look after us, I don’t think we should have to use that or regular sick pay for an illness we have because of work,” she said.
“It’s bad enough dealing with this horrible illness but now I’m worrying about paying the mortgage when this runs out, I try not to worry but it’s at the forefront of my mind all the time.”
Workplace Relations Commission
Today Chairperson of the National Joint Council of HSE Staff Trade Unions, Tony Fitzpatrick said the HSE had failed to attend a hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission to discuss the issue yesterday.
“These health care workers attended work to care for patients, at a time when other workers, public and private were being told to stay at home. Healthcare workers were classified as essential for attendance at work,” he said.
“The number of public healthcare workers on this scheme make up 0.2% of the entire healthcare workforce. These workers must have financial and professional stability as promised by the Minister.
“It is unacceptable to us as a group of unions representing healthcare workers that the Special Leave with Pay scheme will now cease, and these workers will face a financial cliff edge.
This is the opposite of what the Minister for Health promised wouldn’t happen. It is infuriating and extremely disappointing that the Minister has not followed through on his commitment and ensured that the Department of Health and the HSE engage with the unions in relation to this matter. The WRC offered to facilitate talks yesterday but the HSE refused to attend.
Fitzpatrick said staff suffering with after-effects of Covid should not now be penalised for not being able to return to work.
“Healthcare workers who find themselves still suffering from Long Covid should be protected from financial loss due to an injury sustained at work,” he said. “These workers stepped up when the State needed them, the State should step up and continue to protect these workers.”
‘Temporary measure’
In a statement to The Journal, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said SLWP for Covid-19 was a temporary measure in response to the unprecedented circumstances presented by the pandemic.
It said if employees remain unwell beyond the seven-day isolation period they can avail of the Public Service sick leave scheme.
“It is important to note that we have standardised paid sick leave provisions across the Public Service,” the department said.
“All illnesses are treated equally under the Public Service Sick Leave Regulations, including those that are critical. There are also occupational health supports in place in each of the sectors for employees who are absent on sick leave. ”
The department also made reference to the Critical Illness Protocol and Temporary Rehabilitation Remuneration, which may be granted to public servants who have exhausted their sick leave, where there is a reasonable prospect of recovery and return to work.
“Special Leave with Pay for Covid-19 is not intended to replace sick leave in the public service, nor was it designed to address long Covid,” it said.
“Additionally, it is out of scope for Special Leave with Pay to address causation. The issue of where someone may or may not have contracted Covid-19 would need to be addressed on a sector by sector basis.”
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Cancer doesn’t care it you are
Black or white,
Rich or poor,
Or young or old….
Best of luck to you and all others who are fighting the big fight…
Well said
Are you head of his supporter’s club paddy :-)
Hugh why were my comments removed?
At end of the day your health is most important. Good luck to him in his fight
The manner in which Brian Lenihan and his family were treated by TV3 was nothing short of disgraceful. I would hate to think that the same was about to happen to Michael Noonan at the hands of a tabloid newspaper.
Hugh, some would say that the manner in which Brian Lenihan treated the Irish public was nothing short of disgraceful. I doubt that those who have had their medical cards removed from their sick children, as an indirect result of Lenihan’s capitulation to Europe would shed too many tears over a newspaper article.
Im actually shocked at this comment. These people are psychopaths that treat the electorate with disregard to put it nicely. I actually can’t believe you are trying to protect them. Open your eyes
Leave his private medical life to himself ffs.
People have to disclose their private lives to get the treatment they bee to stay alive. Maybe he can now empathise with the MS sufferers and how they have taken their medication off the free medical scheme.
There are others facing the reality of cancer every day and trying to come to terms with it.
I’m willing to bet noonan wasn’t left on a trolly or had to face huge waiting lists for treatment.
I empathize with him but he will be well looked after.
Cancer will effect one in three of us in some way.
What business is it of yours, mine or anyone else’s what standard of treatment he gets.
Well then why go to the media then if it’s his own business?
Well if doesn’t turn up for work in the next few weeks people will be asking why.
Bet he won’t be waiting for treatments like the rest of us
“Seized the initiative”.. went public when the media were about to.
I hope his medical card wasn’t cancelled for some reason. It would seem unreasonable to cancel a card on someone with a serious medical condition….
And still he made it onto the Tarmac to meet Donald. Is it fair, when so many are suffering with cancer that he plays down the heavy toll it that’s on family’s. Noonan Family must be worried sick that the stress of office could hinder recovery. if he feels he can contuine then it must be on medicinal grounds but with the stress test of our banks. His head of dept leaving and a possible property bubble forming should he have the finial say. for that matter show we be worried about the physical and mental health of all TD. Should a medicinal not be compulsory before taking their seats in Dáil Éireann. asking for drug tests and breath samples before voting on legislation maybe going a bit far but leaving control in so few hands and if some where compromised due to drink or mental ability. Could that legislation they voted on not be open to question due to their state of mind.
Excellent!
What’s excellent about that drivel, you must be easily pleased, such asinine posts.
Pass the puke bucket ,please ! It’s a private matter and he’s just another human being ,fighting a battle !
I can’t believe he still has his snout at the trough at 71. There should be a mandatory retirement age for them exactly like for everybody else.
taking leaders questions and according to media reports its opportunity to congratulate him on his fight with cancer……..not a mention of the 800 babies buried in septic tank
I do not really get how this article is an analysis or even why an analysis is required. It’s more of a ‘noonan is a great fella altogether for getting ahead of the ball with this cancer and getting on with the job,’ type of personal opinion.
mike how is Bill
have your say