Outrage as Israel’s doctors, nurses are docked pay for time spent in quarantine
Thousands saw a decrease in their latest take-home wages, because time spent in compulsory isolation was treated as sick days and calculated at a lower rate
Nathan Jeffay is The Times of Israel's health and science correspondent
Nurses and doctors are furious that they are losing money from pay checks if they encounter the coronavirus in the line of duty and end up having to quarantine.
Thousands of health professionals saw a decrease in their latest salary payments, because time spent in compulsory quarantine after coming in contact with an infected person was treated as sick days, which are accounted at a reduced rate.
Uri Fleischmann, general director of the Israeli Nurses Association (INA), told The Times of Israel that the policy is affecting his members across hospital departments — including those who have chosen to work in coronavirus wards.
Anger reached a new high after Ephraim Malkin, a senior Finance Ministry official, called health workers’ demands for full pay when quarantined “excessive and unbalanced” on Monday, in a meeting of the Knesset’s Special Committee on Welfare and Labor Affairs.
Zeev Feldman, deputy president of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), told The Times of Israel that Malkin’s comments were outrageous, and that the government’s “stingy” attitude to healthcare processionals in quarantine is “the most insulting and upsetting issue we’re facing right now.”
He said: “We’re dealing with the coronavirus, and we are treating patients with dedication and enthusiasm, and this is one thing that upsets doctors and nurses of all ranks.” Exposure to the coronavirus has become part of their job and they shouldn’t have to pay for it out of their wages, he argued.
Malkin, first deputy head of Wages and Labor in the Finance Ministry, said that health employees who are in quarantine still receive 80% to 90% of their salaries. But the IMA and the INA insist that as exposure takes place in the line of duty there should be no financial loss, nor should time in isolation come out of their allowance of sick days, which they may need if they or their children are unwell.
Fleischmann said that nurses are dismayed that they are dealing with both a shortage of protective equipment, which increases chance of quarantine, and financial losses if they need to self-isolate.
“We come to the [coronavirus] battle to fight unconditionally and give our everything, but at the end of the day the government doesn’t want to provide the financial protection it should,” he told The Times of Israel.
Feldman likened the current policy to deducting sick days from injured soldiers in the battlefield. “Soldiers on the front line who are injured or have mental distress due to battle are not expected to take sick days,” he said.
Some doctors and nurses, he noted, have been quarantined after exposure to the coronavirus, returned to work, and then been quarantined again.
“Every coronavirus patient will meet doctors and nurses and other health professionals, and we are at increased risk of exposure to the coronavirus and facing all the impact,” he said, claiming that the government is “failing to appreciate the consequences” of their work.
Rejecting demands for full pay to quarantined health workers, Malkin told Monday’s Knesset committee meeting that people across sectors are suffering from the impact of the coronavirus, stating that “hundreds of thousands of workers in other fields in the country are going bankrupt or are prohibited from coming in to their workplace, through no fault of their own, at the expense of their vacation days.”
He insisted: “A physician who stays in a hotel or at home is not performing the full amount of work. It is true that the situation is unique and uncharacteristic [of others], and we are willing to give the workers of the healthcare system a large portion of their salary, but not 100%, and not in a way that all the sick days will be paid for by the employer.”
Aida Touma-Sliman, chair of the Knesset committee, rejected this position, saying: “The medical [employees] who are obligated to enter quarantine did not choose to sit at home and not go to work. A large part of them invests hours in consultations, even while in quarantine.
“The salaries of Knesset members and ministers who enter quarantine are not harmed, but the doctors’ [salaries] are. We must give them all the support, including financial [support], as they treat us, our parents and our children.” Ahmad Tibi, also from the Joint List, said that the policy reflects “ungratefulness on the part of the state.”
