A senior Siptu official informed healthcare workers in an update on Tuesday that the HSE staff panel of trade unions has sought a meeting with Miche\u00e1l Martin.<\/p>\n
Kevin Figgis said they \u201cwelcomed his comments, which indicated a willingness to revisit the issue of a Long Covid scheme for healthcare workers who were infected in the workplace\u201d.<\/p>\n
A temporary special scheme for staff unable to work due to Long Covid meant they received full pay, but it was discontinued at the end of December.<\/p>\n
Mr Figgis\u2019 message came after Mr Martin said last month he was open to meeting the group and to speak to the ministers responsible, although he said there were \u201ccomplexities\u201d surrounding the issue.<\/p>\n
He added that he did not dispute the fact that many healthcare staff contracted the virus while working in hospitals during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, who was also speaking in the D\u00e1il, noted that housekeeping staff, porters, nurses, healthcare assistants and other clinicians who contracted the virus at the height of the pandemic had received special leave with pay.<\/p>\n
The special sick pay scheme ended after the Labour Court ruled that Long Covid is not considered an occupational illness in this jurisdiction, so it could not decide otherwise. Workers transferred to a general sick leave scheme that means full pay for three months, followed by half pay for another three.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff panel of health trade unions, working collectively and with the support of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, is now seeking a meeting with the Taoiseach to discuss the ongoing impact of Long Covid on healthcare workers and the need for appropriate, long-term occupational protections and supports,\u201d said Mr Figgis in the update.<\/p>\n
He said the staff panel has repeatedly called for Long Covid to be defined as an occupational disease for healthcare workers in Ireland, \u201cin line with international practice and the reality experienced by affected members\u201d.<\/p>\n
The panel of health unions includes Connect, the craft group of unions, F\u00f3rsa, IMO, INMO, MLSA, Siptu and Unite.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Figgis said the temporary scheme was in place for those medically defined as having Long Covid since 2022. Around 164 workers were still on the scheme at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
Mr Figgis said the general sick leave scheme is time-constrained and payments are gradually reduced. He said he had been contacted by a worker who applied for public service critical illness cover and was told they would not get an appointment for a doctor\u2019s assessment until July.<\/p>\n
He said unions are seeking a long-term scheme that takes on board the fact that Long Covid has had a major impact on some workers\u2019 ability to function. \u201cThere are people who are struggling to get their lives back,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel the human story in this needs to be told directly from the people who are affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irish Independent has contacted the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Health for a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior Siptu official informed healthcare workers in an update on Tuesday that the HSE staff panel of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46,10075],"class_list":["post-334595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-latest-news-ticker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}