One-off ‘thank you’ payment for frontline heroes
Reward for public sector staff who have given their all
PUBLIC sector employees who were working in the frontline during the coronavirus healthcare crisis in the Valencia region are to receive a one-off ‘emergency’ payment.
Regional president Ximo Puig noted that it will be for healthcare staff – and emergency and social services staff.
He told the regional parliament: “We are studying how and in what way we can give them economic compensation as they have been fighting for all of us.”
Sr Puig explained that they would use the Covid-19 state aid package – which is giving regional governments extra resources to pay the costs of the crisis – for the one-off expenditure.
No figure has yet been set by the Valencia government for the payment.
He praised the ‘extraordinary example’ which had been set by frontline workers during the pandemic.
Their efforts have reduced the number of people needing hospital treatment for coronavirus in the region to under 100, with more than 14,000 patients having recovered.
A total of 2,277 healthcare workers have caught Covid19 in the Valencia region and 498 remain infected with the disease.
Fatality rate
Sr Puig also noted that Valencia has a lower fatality rate than other regions of Spain – ‘5.4 times lower than Castilla-La Mancha and 4.8 times lower than Madrid’.
He added that they have started to pay aid money to employees on very low incomes who have been ‘furloughed’ by their employers via an ERTE measure.