We are Covid heroes too..so where's OUR pandemic payments?

Plight of contract workers yet to get their €1k lump sum.. 10mths on

-  LOUISE BURNE

CLEANERS, security staff and caterers who worked through the worst of coronavirus have yet to receive their €1,000 bonus.

They told how they lost weight from stress, avoided their children for fear of infecting them and were even hit and spat at by Covid patients.

Labour health spokesperson Duncan Smith yesterday called for "forgotten heroes of the pandemic" to get the recognition they deserve.

More than 10 months after the €1,000 Pandemic Bonus Payment was announced by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly HSE staff have received their payments but contractor workers are still waiting.

Eoin O'Brien, a contract security worker at University Hospital Limerick told the Irish Mirror he was afraid to touch his children each day after work.

He added: "I would have been on the main doors, on the A&E doors, ICU doors, HDU doors helping move patients and bodies to the morgue.

"We were dealing with aggressive patients who didn't want to be in the hospital. We were getting hit, kicked and spat at by Covid patients on a regular basis who were highly strung.