Nurses at county owned facility left behind as private facility counterparts receive hazard pay
Goshen, N.Y.—As the pandemic fades away and society opens up, nurses at Valley View Center are still wearing masks and caring for COVID-19 patients every day.
The center is the only county-owned nursing home in Orange County, New York.
The masks serve as a daily reminder to Doreen Tice, a veteran licensed practical nurse at the center, of the physical and emotional toll the pandemic exerted on her and her colleagues over the past two years.
Adding to that toll is the fact that they have asked for hazard pay since the summer of 2020 but have not gotten a penny from the county, Tice told The Epoch Times.
On Nov. 3, Tice addressed county legislators and pleaded once again for the pay.
Hazard pay generally refers to additional pay for performing a hazardous duty or job involving physical hardships.
At the height of the pandemic, nurses at Valley View worked on the front lines against an unknown virus, putting their lives at risk. They skipped lunches to ensure that medications were administered on schedule; they held phones so dying patients could talk to their families one last time, and they worked regular hours plus overtime. All that deserves additional pay, Tice said.
Proposal for Hazard Pay Went Nowhere
Kim Lacoste, then-nurse care manager of the COVID unit at the center, organized a petition for hazard pay in the summer of 2020, but the effort yielded nothing.
Lacoste told The Epoch Times that she acted after discovering that nurses at a number of private hospitals and nursing centers received hazard pay.
Early last year, the county received $75 million under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The funds could be spent in four ways under the law; one of those was premium pay for essential workers.
County legislators flirted with a proposal to pay frontline health workers at Valley View an hourly hazard premium. In November of 2021, the Mid Hudson News reported “Orange County Government is poised to follow other area counties by offering hazard pay to COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers.”
As the discussion expanded and disagreement arose about the amount of hazard pay to award, the proposal was tabled, according to a January article in the Times Herald-Record.
Almost a year later, on Nov. 1, the county’s Ways and Means Committee voted to earmark a lump sum of $2 million for hazard pay. However, the budget provision awaits the approval of the full legislature.
Nurses Didn’t Have the Luxury of Working From Home
“I personally don’t agree with that,” veteran Valley View nurse Kathleen McGinnis said. “We didn’t have the luxury of working from our home on our couch in our pajamas.”
A licensed practical nurse, McGinnis was assigned to the center’s COVID unit, sometimes taking care of 40 patients on her own due to staff shortages.
“I called the union representative one time, and I had a breakdown. I just couldn’t do another over time. Mentally, physically, emotionally, I just couldn’t do it anymore,” McGinnis told The Epoch Times.
The staffing shortage worsened during the pandemic and became even more acute after the state vaccine mandate. A number of workers walked away from their jobs after refusing the shots over safety concerns.
Neither Tice nor McGinnis wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine but did so for fear of losing hard-earned benefits. McGinnis will retire with full benefits in one and half years, and Tice in three and half years.
Bulk of ARPA Money To Build New County Facilities
According to the county’s current spending plan (pdf), the $75 million ARPA money will be spent in two primary ways: COVID-19 responses, such as purchasing testing and protective equipment, and replacing lost county revenue to maintain services and jobs.
The bulk of the money will be spent on new facilities, including a $21.3 million new medical examiner’s office and a $23 million new Department of Health and Human Services building, according to a September article in the Times Herald-Record.
The county has not yet announced a plan to use ARPA funds for hazard pay.
The expenditure plan is subject to change. Under the law, the county must formally allocate the money by the end of 2024 and spend it by the end of 2026.
‘Honking Horns Are Not Good Enough’
To Tice and McGinnis, the county’s failure to allocate money for hazard pay equates to not honoring their hard work during the pandemic.
“I would like to see them do what we do, walk a mile in our shoes and then say that we don’t need hazard pay,” Tice said. “Honking horns are not good enough. We deserve a monetary reward.”
County Executive Steven Neuhaus told The Epoch Times in a statement, “We commend the Valley View staff for the extraordinary care that they provide residents every day.”
Although nurses at Valley View received nothing from the county, they are eligible to receive payments from the state under governor Kathy Hochul’s $10 billion health care stimulus plan, the Health Care Worker Bonus program.
Under the plan, announced Aug. 3, health care workers are eligible for up to a $3,000 bonus.
The Civil Service Employees Union (CSEA), which represents employees at Valley View, is about to start negotiating a new contract with the county. The current contract ends at the end of 2023.
Orange County Commissioner of Human Resources Langdon Chapman told The Epoch Times in a statement that health care worker bonus pay will be addressed during the contract negotiations.
The Epoch Times reached out to CSEA for comments.
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Cara is an Orange County, New York-based Epoch Times reporter. She can be reached at cara.ding@epochtimes.com
