Matt Miller, a Democrat running for New York State Assembly in the 131st issued a call for local hospitals to pay healthcare workers hazard pay amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With a lack of access to PPE and other difficult conditions conditions, he says healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic are at extreme risk of contracting the virus.
“I find it extremely appalling that our local hospitals aren’t paying our front line healthcare workers hazard pay during this crisis. Workers are being told to wear the same mask for 5 days and to wipe down contact gowns that are intended for single use,” Miller said.
“They risk exposing their families and are under immense duress during this crisis. The least hospitals can do is pay them more for their services and sacrifices. If the small, family owned business that I work at can give me $2 extra an hour, so can the hospitals. I am calling on every area hospital CEO to immediately begin paying frontline healthcare workers hazard pay for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. There are very few things the President and I agree on but I wholeheartedly agree with his recent statement regarding hazard pay: ‘we are asking the hospitals to do it…and I think they are entitled to it.’ It is time the heroes in this fight are paid what they are deserving of,” he added.
He says that the risk to healthcare workers is ‘skyrocketing’ by the day and adding to that stress is the concern that they contend with termination in some cases if advocating for health and safety.
There have no been confirmed cases of healthcare workers in the Finger Lakes being denied PPE.
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