The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Hospital staff demands virus hazard pay
DANBURY — When patients die at Danbury and New Milford hospitals, health care workers — not their families — are typically by their side.
It has been one of the hardest parts of the coronavirus pandemic for hospital staff.
“The emotional toll is so much greater than we could ever imagine,” said Jessica Ellul, a union representative who has worked parttime on a Danbury Hospital COVID-19 unit.“We never thought we would be Facetiming patients’ families so they can say goodbye for the last time.”
The emotional strain on staff is a main reason workers at Danbury and New Milford hospitals say they deserve hazard pay during the pandemic.
Four unions representing more than 1,800 employees have created an online petition demanding hazard pay, defined by the U.S. Department of Labor as additional pay for performing hazardous duty or work that causes extreme physical discomfort and distress. Similar petitions are circulating for the Yale New Haven Health System, the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group and Prospect Medical Holdings.
“We have supported our communities and worked many hours outside of our normal schedules in order to provide exceptional care to all of our patients particularly those patients with the COVID 19 virus,” Janice Stauffer, president of the Danbury Nurses Union Unit 47, wrote. “We feel fear and concern for our own safety and the health of our families although put that aside to honor our commitment to our patients.”
The hospitals, which are part of the Nuvance Health network, said they have launched new benefit programs in the wake of the pandemic, spokeswoman Andrea Rynn said.
“We value all of our employees and are so proud of the commitment they make caring for our patients,” she said in a statement. “We provide comprehensive benefit programs to keep our employees safe and healthy — both mentally and physically, including new programs and supports implemented due to the pandemic.”
This includes expanding paid time off for employees diagnosed with COVID-19, Rynn said.
“We continue to consider every viable opportunity to help them feel valued and safe as we work together to come out of this health emergency,” she said. “For this reason, we are always searching for new ways to help our employees continue their essential work and ensure they remain fairly compensated.”
Ellul, a staff representative with Connecticut Health Care Associates, which represents roughly 900 service and maintenance workers at Danbury and New Milford hospitals, said administrators have been helpful in implementing various measures to assist staff.
This includes arranging hotel discounts, setting up space for workers to shower before going home and keeping employed staff who worked at departments that are now closed, she said. But requests for hazard pay have apaprently gone unanswered.
Yale New Haven Health System plans to give a “COVID-19 Recognition Award,” with 5 percent of their earnings from the total hours they worked between the first pay period of the calendar year and May 9.
Northwell Health in New York is giving employees a $2,500 bonus and one week of paid time off, while Senate Democrats have proposed giving essential workers a $13 per hour raise.
The petition does not request a specific amount — that’s something unions would negotiate on, said John Brady, statewide vice president for AFT Connecticut, which represents unions for Danbury and New Milford nurses, as well as technical professionals for both facilities.
Communities have thanked health care workers with signs and parades, but the hazard pay would go beyond this, he said.
“Part of it is a matter of respect,” Brady said. “Money is another way of showing respect to people.”
Hospital workers across the state have faced a shortage in personal protective equipment, with some being forced to transfer to a sister hospital, without regard for extra costs for travel and child care, he said. Some hospitals — but not at Danbury or New Milford — employees who have gotten sick with the virus have been denied workers compensation, Brady said.
Meanwhile, the state requirement that insurance companies cover coronavirus testing and treatment for fully insured members often does not apply to health care workers because they are on self-insured plans, he said.
“Not only are people putting their lives at risk every day, but they’re also facing financial problems, too,” he said.
More than 8,000 people have signed the petition, including Mary Consoli, who worked as a nurse at Danbury Hospital for about 30 years and served as president of the union for 17 years until her retirement nearly three years ago.
She served as a nurse when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was emerging, but said she never feared bringing that disease home to her family. That’s not the case with COVID-19, she said.
“We’ve cared for many infectious disease,” Consoli said. “We do this all the time, whether it’s the flu, whether its staph infections, many things, but it’s the unknown. It’s the contagion and the lethal part, the fact that you could get
COVID-19 and die. Fortunately, none of our nurses have, but it’s that fear.”
The idea of hazard pay is not new. During the Ebola crisis, the union and hospital had started to negotiate a bonus for nurses, but that was ultimately not offered because the disease did not come to the United States, Consoli said.
Ellul works eight hours a week at Danbury Hospital as a unit coordinator, normally on the oncology wing. But her last two shifts were in units with COVID-19 patients. She described patients begging staff to stay in their rooms because they were afraid to die alone, and a husband who pleaded to be discharged so he could bury his wife.
“I was only there two days on that COVID unit and the impact it took on me, I can still cry talking about it right now,” she said. “These are things we will never forget, ever.”