The caregivers will be honored on this July 14: a tribute will be paid to them during the ceremony place de la Concorde in Paris at the time of the Marseillaise and 1,400 of them have been invited to the stands. But for others, this day will have a rather bitter taste: certain nursing staff were indeed sanctioned, even downright dismissed during the coronavirus crisis, for having launched the alert within their establishment, or simply asked for masks.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Tuesday July 14
Younès, a nurse in a Toulouse nursing home, feels "neglected, neglected", and he won't even watch the parade. He was laid off, he said, for insisting on access to his institution's stock of masks, a weekend when five residents were showing symptoms. "My colleague contacted the Samu, who recommended that she destock the masks and gowns, as these were suspicious cases. The management refused to destock the equipment," he said. "It is not fair."
Police to evacuate the caregiver
Three days later, according to Younès, his colleague was laid off and he was in turn summoned by management. "She told me that I had to leave the establishment. I refused and she called the police. Four police officers were waiting for me outside the door, it really shocked me," said the caregiver.
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Younès had an "aggressive behavior", answers the establishment, which "formally challenges" this version of the facts. "The tests turned out to be negative. (…) It was the disproportionate reaction of the two employees and the necessary cohesion of the team that led the Director to take the protective measure", specifies the management of the Domusvi group, in charge of management of this Ehpad. "The nature of the allegations is of sufficient gravity that, as an employer, we were forced to consider taking action against these employees."
"Heroes" in "Disciplinary Council"
In Livry-Gargan, in the Paris region, Anissa Amini was also summoned for a "meeting prior to disciplinary proceedings". This union delegate from the South had written about the difficulties encountered during the crisis in her Ehpad. She is a nurse's aide: "Me, I'm not going to parade on July 14. I take it like fucking upset," she denounces. "We are heroes and we are summoned to a disciplinary council?" If I walk in Paris this afternoon, she says, it will be in the procession of angry caregivers, who will leave at 2 p.m. from Place de la République, in Paris, to join that of the Bastille.