BIG News - But A Step None Of Us Thought We Would Ever Take

Co founder of the campaign, Rachel Hext, is on her way to London we speak and you can read more about this here.

The journalist who wrote this is really well known to the Team, as she was behind the Panorama documentary on NHS Staff and the pandemic in January 2023.

Rachel and colleagues are taking the NHS and their employers to court to pursue them for compensation. Many of you might will disagree with this, however we know of thousands of Keyworkers who are in financial distress, some of who have been made homeless, increasing numbers who have lost their careers. Many of these individuals have needed their partners to give up working to care for them, putting the families into further financial issues. And yet we have no word on any kind of compensation scheme.

To decide to take legal action in a personal injury claim is a difficult one many won’t understand, but we do: If we had lost limbs at work through no fault of our own, we would be entitled to compensation. If it was as a result of failure in policy, ditto. We know that many of our keyworker colleagues are struggling financially, often being denied pensions and benefits they should be entitled to. We know they need to have some security for themselves and for their families going forwards.

But we will remind you that if the government had started a proper Keyworker Pension and Compensation Scheme, in line with the AFCS then neither Rachel, nor our friends or medical and other health and social care professionals would be needing to take this unprecedented step.

Two of the others names in the article are Peter Easton and Julie Taylor. Peter worked in emergency theatres in Cardiff, a keen runner who now spends much of his time in a chair. Julie, a former community nurse from Hull, is really well known to the KWPC team and is a long time friend. She is also behind the amazing podcast Living With Long Covid and some of the founders have been privileged to be asked to be guests on her show a few times (Cass is pretty sure Julie’s audience is more than sick of the sound of them by now).

When calling us mercenary, remember we are not: Many of our careers have ended, leaving us unable to work at all. Many of us would have had 20, 30, 40 or more years still to work. As a result our pensions are affected. Our families are affected. Our health is affected. When you look at the average nursing salary and multiply that by 30 years, you begin to see the impact this will have, especially when compared with ill health pension, benefits and so on. Also remember that:

Most of us have never received acknowledgement or apology from our employers. We have never received any acknowledgement from governments that their decisions put us at risk and caused our conditions. There is still NO compensation for Keyworkers with occupational Long Covid and many are denied their pensions, with the newly qualified (under two years) unable to claim Ill Health Retirement at all.

Today’s hearing in the High Court in London is the first stage for more than 60 people represented by Kevin Digby and his team. It is the start of a long journey, as it won’t go to court for at least a year, if not longer.

We salute Rachel and our friends and colleagues who have made the difficult decision to take this on legally. We wish them all the best and back them 100%.

 Go Get ‘Em, Rach! We are all behind you.