Public healthcare workers, who served onsite in a clinical Covid-19 exposed env. to receive 1k euro

thedeiseman

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503285#Comment_118503285

Are you confusing essential workers with those working in high risk clinical areas with sick/infected people? How many postmen spent their working day with a surgical gown and mask on, going into rooms with infected people? Would it not be up to private employers to reward their employees rather than the Government?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503091#Comment_118503091

It’s the last point that pretty much makes anything and everything you say in this thread, absolutely redundant…

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503322#Comment_118503322

And deeply offensive to many people

KilOit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503322#Comment_118503322

Well it's the truth and the truth hurts by the looks of it

tjhook

I have no problem with a bonus for front-line workers in a medical setting getting a bonus. I spent most of the last two years thankful I wasn't one of them.

But as somebody earlier in the thread said, I'm a little uncomfortable with creating exceptions in the tax rules for a single section of society. We already have special rules on income tax for foreign executives who move here, and many moons ago (if I recall correctly) an exception was written into tax law to allow Eircom employees to cash in their shares without any tax liability. I wasn't comfortable with those situations either. There are always odd situations in tax law but we shouldn't be purposely adding to them. Tax law should treat everybody's bonus the same way.

I'd be more comfortable if they just increased this bonus to €1200 per person, but then taxed it normally. Probably easier to administer too.

Cork Lass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503245#Comment_118503245

Where are you pulling these figures from? Do you realise that during the whole pandemic essential workers continued going to work. That's shop assistants, all food suppliers, restaurants (takeaway), pharmacy. chemical companies , garages - the list goes on. Pretty damn insulting to say that most people were in their pyjamas watching Netflix. Just to add, I'm not a frontline worker but i agree that they should be rewarded for the amazing work they did. Essential workers did their job.

SouthWesterly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503329#Comment_118503329

Yes absolutely.

I wasn't watching Netflix. I watched Amazon Video. 😂

But on a serious note.

A friend of mine is a care assistant in the local hospital. He was looking after covid patients all day recently. Got tested that evening. He had gotten covid.

Another friend is a nurse in covid icu. She hasn't seen her kids for months on end, not wanting to expose them.

I was working at home for the past 2 years in relative safety.

Im not the one who put my life and that of my family on the line.

thedeiseman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503168#Comment_118503168

You just described literally every shop and business open to the public.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503387#Comment_118503387

Which shops and businesses admitted and retained ill people infected with Covid? Were people suffering from Covid going to Tescos for treatment, is there an ICU ward in Currys?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503285#Comment_118503285

What about the boys in the supermarket why should only the girls get something. As for postmen and animal feed merchants how many of them were having to handle Covid patients every day its laughable to compare them to Covid ward healthcare staff

I do feel sorry for the shop workers though. They had to deal with all the prcks and morons who couldnt figure out how to wear a mask over their fkn nose or couldnt cop that you can talk to someone without getting right in their face. They will get no €1000 and might not even get the day off for the new bank holiday or get overtime for working it.

LillySV

I went into an office for months till late in eve to help in pandemic … now it appears only the healthcare workers are goin to be thanked for their contribution… I’ve no problem with people in a&e’s who worked hard and at risk during the pandemic from getting it…. But it will kill me to think that the house full of nurses next door to me will get it:.: when they didn’t go to work for at least ayear and were at home on full pay! Just eat and Amazon trucks arriving all day every day … this is being rolled out wrong ….

and before someone says f u …civil servant looking for money … I’m not … I’m just highlighting fact that not all healthcare workers worked hard or stepped up in the lockdowns… so therefore that whole industry shouldn’t be getting this … in my opinion the real hero’s are the shop workers who worked hard throughout the pandemic for f all … no thanks … dealing with lunatics who couldn’t buy enough toilet roll and beans! They deserve it far more imo

KilOit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503387#Comment_118503387

Oh I'm sorry I forgot shops turn into makeshift hospitals that you bring sick people into

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503443#Comment_118503443

A house full of nurses on full pay at home for a year ? Really ? Explain that please ?

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503443#Comment_118503443

TBF, if you buy a lot of beans, the toilet paper is probably necessary.

As for the rest of your post, don’t civil servants receive pay/pay increases even if they are on sick leave?

Like the poster above, I’d like to know how a house full of nurses didn’t go to work, and got full pay for at least a year. Care to shed some light on how you know this to be a fact?

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503443#Comment_118503443

Er not that I'm calling bullshit....but why were the nurses at home for a year on full pay?

LillySV

Non essential areas of hospitals as well as some of the areas in private clinics which were taken over by Hse … many of the staff in these areas kept at home in the actual lockdowns

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503568#Comment_118503568

They were redeployed so a house full of nurses on full pay sitting at home is a tad far fetched

LillySV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503543#Comment_118503543

Pay increases… what shite are you spewing … This topic is about bonuses to people who deserved it for their contribution in the pandemic ….

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503443#Comment_118503443

The payment is not applicable to health care workers who wee required to cocoon/isolate/work from home etc. during the pandemic.

LillySV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503581#Comment_118503581

Redeployed ? Ohhh right…where? Non essential surgeries and appointments were cancelled … including two of mine …don’t tell me..:: they were on the contact tracing service … haha

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503605#Comment_118503605

Where needed of course . Because why would the HSE have a house full of nurses at home on full pay when they had to use 4 th year nursing students on the wards to fill gaps ? It makes no sense

LillySV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503598#Comment_118503598

I hope that’s the case … as I’ve said already …hats off to the real frontline workers … the nurses and doctors and cleaning/support staff who worked in the danger areas every day… the deserve the money for sure

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503552#Comment_118503552

Thousands of HCW were not permitted to go to work during the pandemic due to underlying health conditions. Most were required to work from home but that was a bit of a joke for those who didn't previously have 'office' type work so most weren't set up to work from home so weren't actually required to do anything. This included a very large number of pregnant Asian staff who were determined to be very 'high risk' of contracting C19 by the HSE's OHD. It was very frustrating to those of us who were required to manage them.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503663#Comment_118503663

What's a "very large number" of pregnant Asians. It can't be that many surely.

I'm not disputing that there were people out though because of underlying conditions or had no one home to mind the kids with school closed and grandparents isolating. There is nothing to suggest these people will get the bonus though.

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503713#Comment_118503713

Well nationally it must be quite a significant number. For my service it is 8 pregnant Asian staff currently but it must be much higher in the general hospitals where there are much higher numbers of Asian staff. (The vast majority of Asian staff working in the HSE are of 'child bearing age'.)

Regarding your second point, I didn't suggest that they will get the payment. I actually stated the opposite.

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502455#Comment_118502455

I agree with this. I’m a frontline healthcare worker, albeit one who straddles the public/private divide somewhat. I’m not clear at all whether I’m getting this. I don’t want it. I did my job. This is a populist giveaway that isn’t even going to work for the government, since it’s going to rile people up who don’t get it and feel they should.

If you’re going to run a public health service, fund it properly, and pay your staff properly in the first place, to make it attractive for them to work there. Personally I’d prefer they privatised the whole thing, but that ship has sailed, so at least get the fundamentals right in the service we do have.

square ball

I think the bonus should only go to Healthcare workers working in direct contact with Covid Positive patients over the course of the pandemic. These are the people who deserve this. They turned up to work not knowing what effect the virus would have on them at the start. Didn't know how sick it would make them at the start even but still turned up and did their jobs with little or no complaint.

There were plenty of Healthcare workers who went out sick because they had underlying issues, pregnancy, etc. which they were probably right to and were advised to do that should not be eligible.

Agency staff should be given the bonus if deserving of it from their employers not the tax payer as they are working for private companies, many of whom recorded record profits by the way.

The government should give all private employers the option to give a one time tax free bonus of €1000 to any other frontline workers they feel is deserving such as the retail workers, lorry drivers, private healthcare workers, etc that kept the show on the road when the country was locked down.

I was a 'frontline' public sector worker who went to work everyday until my girlfriend was redeployed in a Covid ward after Christmas 2021 so had to work from home to protect my colleagues. I was involved in the early stages of the PUP payment, online SW claims system & redeployed to the HSE a number of times to assist at the early stages of Vaccination Registration, Digital Covid Cert and a number of other projects. Most of these were total shitshows starting off, some are still shitshows.

It has been a fairly difficult and stressful two years since the start of the pandemic in my job but I wasn't dealing with people who could infect me with a potentially deadly virus face to face or have to pretty much isolate from my family when not at work because even when restrictions were lifted because they were still treating Covid Positive patients. I don't think I or any other public sector worker that wasn't risking their lives directly treating Covid Positive patients should be entitled to it.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503584#Comment_118503584

Read the title, it’s about healthcare workers who worked in clinical areas with high risk of infection, not people who didn’t, like shop workers, postmen, pharmacists, teachers etc, and of course, you.

My point regarding pay increases is that when they occur, it is not unusual for some people in the PS/CS to benefit from them, even if it is undeserved. So don’t be hypocritical.

You took a cheap, uninformed shot at your neighbours, and got caught out. You went from “at least a year” to “actual lockdowns”, no houses full of nurses stayed at home on full pay. If your neighbours were not working in high risk clinical areas, they don’t get the payment.

Absolute Zero

Ah the old Irish begrudgery on full display in this thread. These tears are so salty and delicious.