Nurse with long Covid denied special leave pay to get €127,000 for lost earnings

A nurse denied access to a special leave scheme for long Covid because she couldn’t produce a positive test for the virus is to receive over €127,000 for lost earnings.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard the results of two tests were judged to be “false negatives” when the nurse fell ill after contact with a Covid-19 patient at a public hospital on March 28th, 2020.

Instructed to self-isolate at first, she received special leave pay for eight weeks before transferring to sick leave until September that year, when her sick pay was cut in half, her trade union said.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) told the tribunal its member had been left “extremely unwell physically and mentally” after being infected at work – but her employer “abdicated” its responsibility.

Ten minutes with Jennifer Lopez: ‘How do I go where my heart is leading me without fear? I say tread forward’

---

Irish Olympian Jack Woolley: ‘We’ve sat in saunas and not drank water for two days’

---

Mark Moriarty: two 15-minute meals made easy, with a few simple tricks

---

The Dublin-New York Portal didn’t show us Manhattan, just our badly-behaved selves

---

Four doctors had confirmed the nurse’s diagnosis with post-Covid Syndrome, including a respiratory specialist, the tribunal heard.

Anne Burke, the INMO’s industrial relations officer, said that at the time the nurse fell ill in March 2020, PCR testing “was not available” and about 30% of swabs taken resulted in false negatives.

The union argued the worker was covered by two 2020 HSE circulars granting special leave with pay for staff at public and voluntary hospitals and other public-funded care organisations.

This provided for the payment of basic salary and fixed allowances to any worker who had been in the workplace in the fortnight prior to being ordered to self-isolate.

However, the worker had got only a “modest” sum as a “rehabilitation” allowance up until March 2022, Ms Burke submitted.

The employer accepted the worker had “symptoms following contact with a Covid-19 patient” but “never tested positive”.

“As she never had a Covid-positive test therefore she never submitted a positive Covid certificate. She needed to have certified Covid illness and all four criteria to meet the criteria,” the employer told the WRC.

“Whilst the respondent is sympathetic towards the employee’s situation [it is] obliged to ensure that all criteria are met before sanctioning a payment,” the employer said.

In a recommendation on the worker’s complaint under the Industrial Relations Act 1969, WRC adjudicator Niamh O’Carroll noted a footnote in the December 2020 circular stating: “It is recognised that at the start of the pandemic, universal Covid testing was not available. Thus, on a case-by-case basis, medical evidence that the clinical presentation indicated a high probability of Covid-19 may suffice.”

“I can find no reason why the footnote should not apply to the worker,” Ms O’Carroll wrote.

There was “no doubt” the nurse had Covid-19 in April 2020, Ms O’Carroll wrote, “most likely” having been infected in her exposure to the Covid-positive patient.

Ms O’Carroll recommended the health service pay €127,120.75 to the staff nurse by October 1st this year.

“The respondent is to continue to treat the worker as complying with the criteria and footnote set out in circular 073/2020 for as long as she is medically certified as suffering from post-Covid syndrome,” the adjudicator added, instructing the nurse to provide monthly medical certs.