Healthcare workers who have lost their jobs due to long-term corona complaints do not currently have to be automatically compensated. This has been determined by the court in preliminary relief proceedings brought by trade unions FNV and CNV.
The cabinet is currently working on a plan for compensation for healthcare workers who became infected during the first corona wave in 2020 and can no longer work as a result. But if it is up to the trade unions, this will take too long and the group entitled to compensation must also become larger.
For example, the unions also want compensation for staff who became infected during the second wave. CNV and FNV had demanded an amount of almost 23,000 euros per person.
Case to case
The judge said today that it must be considered “on a case-by-case basis” whether compensation is appropriate. “This requires an assessment based on everyone’s concrete situation,” the court ruled.
Minister Helder for Long-Term Care says in a response that he will be able to provide more clarity about the compensation plans “in April”. Earlier, the Senate already adopted a motion to set aside 150 million euros for this.
A spokesperson for the CNV trade union believes that it is now the politicians’ turn to speed up the process. “It is clear that something has to be done,” says the spokesman. “It takes and it takes and in the meantime, healthcare workers have already lost their jobs. There are people who have to go to the food bank. They can’t wait, something has to be done now.”
Bottom procedure
The unions are considering initiating proceedings on the merits, but the CNV spokesman acknowledges that this usually takes a lot of time and will not lead to clarity in the short term.
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