Compensation for the occupational disease of caregivers victims of Covid-19 announced Tuesday by the Minister of Health is described as "very insufficient" by several associations and unions this Wednesday.
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The Covid-19 will be recognized "automatically" as an occupational disease for caregivers, but not for other categories of workers, who will have to undergo conventional procedures, said Minister of Health Olivier Véran before Tuesday national. "We are far from the mark," denounce Fnath (association of accident victims of life) and the National Association of Asbestos Victims. "The nursing staff will benefit from automatic recognition as an occupational disease and the others will have to initiate long, costly procedures that are likely to fail . "
Fnath and Andeva "denounce the contempt displayed by the government with reduced compensation for those who risked their lives to ensure a confined population a guarantee of care, food and delivery" . "After the praise and the commitments of the President of the Republic about these 'soldiers of the 1st and 2nd line', it is a very poor recognition that the Nation reserves to them", conclude the two associations which "wish to meet as soon as possible the Minister of Health and the Minister of Labor to find a more satisfactory solution for the victims ” .
"All agents engaged in the field"
The Unsa Civil Service requests this Wednesday that "the system of occupational disease be extended to all agents engaged in the field, in hospitals, with the French, as part of their mission" .
Also read: "Deaths for France": an initiative for caregivers victims of the Coronavirus
For the union, "it seems normal that a teacher welcoming students, a police officer carrying out a check, or a hospital practitioner practicing in the hospital can benefit from the devices linked to occupational diseases in the public service" . The Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner had also argued in favor of such recognition for some of his agents.
"It is a priori common law that will apply"
Beyond the public service alone, Force Ouvrière "demands the extension, beyond caregivers, of the automatic recognition device in occupational disease of Covid-19 for all employees exposed in the context of their activity" , and thinks notably "to the distribution, logistics, garbage collectors, social workers, postal workers, security personnel ..."
Asked the same day on the subject in the Assembly during the fact-finding mission on the coronavirus, the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud explained "that there were occupational diseases that only exist in the professional world, that it is easy, but there are many diseases, it is the case of Covid-19, where contamination can take place everywhere, it is the common law a priori which will apply ” . " Anyone can appeal," she said, "if they have after-effects" , and this "will be assessed by the specialized commissions".
