Miranda Threlfall: All health care workers deserve bonus for combating COVID

To The Daily Sun,

People should consider appealing to the governor and Executive Council to ask for reconsideration in regard to the retention bonus promised to all frontline workers who work full time or part time in a 24/7 institution.

On June 7, a press release was posted informing us of two initiatives that were aimed at “recruiting and retaining new and existing state workers in an effort to better compete in today’s competitive job market.” One of these initiatives in particular, which focused on the retaining of existing workers, was executed in a way that has shown much proclivity toward only a portion of our staff. As of Dec. 1, state of New Hampshire employees were informed that we, regardless of if we worked in these institutional settings as previously stated in the press release, would not be receiving this bonus if our position was not considered “direct-care staff.”

Throughout these past (nearly) three years of the COVID pandemic, support staff has been there to ensure that the facilities are safe and clean, they have provided nourishment to patients and staff throughout the pandemic, they have been there to package and provide the medications necessary for medical and psychological treatment, and they have even been here to physically build the walls necessary for us to battle COVID properly. All staff, regardless of direct or indirect care, did their part to fight the spread of COVID in our facilities and ensured that our patients were safe. While highly important, direct-care employees are not solely responsible for a facility to function or for patient care to be provided; our facilities function because of the amount of work and dedication that every single employee has put into their specific role.

Miranda Threlfall

Tilton