€1000 tax-free pandemic bonus

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Carnmore

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With an already burgeoning national debt, the government has decided to gift healthcare workers €1000 for doing the job they're paid to do.

Like in all sectors, some worked hard, some did not and many had a lot of time on their hands due to hospitals being so quiet.

Regardless, they got paid for the job they're contracted to do.

Who's next for bonuses? Firefighters for extinguishing fires? Armies for going to war?
 
Carnmore said:
With an already burgeoning national debt, the government has decided to gift healthcare workers €1000 for doing the job they're paid to do.

Like in all sectors, some worked hard, some did not and many had a lot of time on their hands due to hospitals being so quiet.

Regardless, they got paid for the job they're contracted to do.

Who's next for bonuses? Firefighters for extinguishing fires? Armies for going to war?
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Suddenly we're going to have 100k+ fontline workers. Who says we have too much admin staff in the HSE? :rolleyes:
 
The least they could do is increase the tax free allowance to €1000 for all employees for one year to allow companies pay a bonus if they wish. Or increase tax credits by €1000 as a once off to allow everyone benefit. After all, we have loads of money.....
 
Anyone care to have a guess as to which group will "demand the grand" next? I'm going with the teachers..
 
Judging by the response to news reports on social media, there won't be a trough big enough for all the rampaging snouts from every sector imaginable
 
They've also "Given us" an extra Bank Holiday. Where do private sector employers apply for the funding to pay the wages for that extra day off? Normally they'd expect to pay the wages themselves but since the State has "Given it" to us I assume they are covering the cost with funds from the magic money tree.
On the "Front Line Wurker" bribe, I presume they will be funding the supermarkets and the private nursing homes and the private bus companies and all the other "Front Line" Wurkers who kept doing their job during the Covid outbreak.
 
for crying out loud, these people risked their lives. 2 Catering staff in St Lukes in Kilkenny actually died from Covid as an example. Will people who sat on the behinds "working from home" get over themselves please.
 
Peanuts20 said:
for crying out loud, these people risked their lives. 2 Catering staff in St Lukes in Kilkenny actually died from Covid as an example. Will people who sat on the behinds "working from home" get over themselves please.
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Were they volunteers? I thought healthcare workers provided healthcare and got paid for doing so.
Virus/infection exposure is an inherent part of the job. If this is deemed too risky they can always get a job doing something else.
 
Peanuts20 said:
for crying out loud, these people risked their lives. 2 Catering staff in St Lukes in Kilkenny actually died from Covid as an example. Will people who sat on the behinds "working from home" get over themselves please.
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People in other jobs stayed working on location and died. People who worked in takeaways and catering in restaurants and hotels died. Are they getting €1000 of borrowed public money?

I stayed working on location, as did everyone else who works here. We make critical medical devices used around the world in the treatment of Covid. We're not looking for €1000 of borrowed public money and we didn't put up signs telling passers-by that we are heroes. This whole thing is embarrassing for anyone working in the health sector who has a modicum of self respect.
 
ATC110 said:
Were they volunteers? I thought healthcare workers provided healthcare and got paid for doing so.
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No, many of the people who gave out vaccines in America were volunteers. Many worked in the healthcare sector and volunteered in vaccine centres after work. In this country the heroes who gave out vaccines had to be paid a vast amount of money for doing their heroic work.

The doctors who usually get paid €10 for giving a flu shot and now get paid €30 for giving a Covid shot will now get an additional €1000 tax free for absolutely coining it through this pandemic.
 
This is going to be an unmitigated disaster.

Now I, for one, don't begrudge the money to reward those healthcare workers who did the heavy lifting. Clad head to toe in clumsy, uncomfortable PPE, exposed to then unknown levels of risk in those early, pre-vaxxine days, they were truly heroic. They worried about bringing the virus home and adopted elaborate personal hygiene and laundry routines to try and keep themselves and their families safe. Some even opted to isolate totally from family to reduce the risk to their own loved ones. For those, the payment is richly deserved.

Then there are others who will qualify based on fairly loose criteria. "Extra work" was mentioned. Hmmmm! Where will the line be drawn? Some blatantly gamed the system during the pandemic and will game it again now to get the tax-free grand. The shameless and the entitled will happily clamber onto the bandwagon. There will, inevitably, be inconsistencies and anomalies with some deserving cases excluded. These will have to be resolved. But as the circle ever widens, the anomalies and inconsistencies widen with it. The hard cases will go on Joe Duffy and their unions will ruthlessly use them as a battering ram to expand the scope of the payment. Their will be reviews, appeals and independent assessment systems to see who should get it. Eventually government will simply cave in and pay everyone.

And then the people who truly deserve it will be annoyed. And rightly so. The really ironic thing is that the government will get no credit from anyone for this. Those who get it and deserve it will be annoyed at the freeloaders. Those who don't get it will begrudge those who do and blame the government. Already SF and PBP are taking up the cudgels on their behalf. Paul Murphy said all workers should get it!

Bookmark this post and check out my prediction in a year's time. Disaster looms!
 
To think up this is a good idea but to try and deliver it is a disaster ...... and an expensive disaster.
 
Healthcare employees were 7 times more likely to get Covid than those working in other sectors.
If we are giving out this money then it should be restricted to that cohort, public and private.
 
An additional public holiday next year bringing us up to 10 and closer to the EU average of 12 and a 4 day St. Patrick’s weekend this year is welcome news.
The Government has been effusive in it’s praise of the heroic work done by healthcare workers in extremely COVID contagious situations and it’s great to see that praise converted into monetary terms .
I note that a Government spokesperson said that of course representative bodies and Trade Unions representing those outside of the cohort chosen by the Government to receive this bonus could advance their respective cases through the industrial relations mechanisms of the State but that the Government was confident of containing the bonus to the prescribed cohort.
Optimism at it’s finest but given the level of cases winging their way to the Labour Court such optimism may be misplaced after all the Labour Court is an independent body that has not always rubber stamped Government decisions and will look at each case on it’s merits.
This tax free bonus is unlikely to effect the claim a once off claim
for 10 days paid leave for Healthcare workers which the Labour Court has suggested should be negotiated between the HSE and Union’s.
 
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