For caregivers contaminated by Covid-19 in the course of their duties, the conditions for access to automatic recognition of occupational disease are very restrictive.
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PHILIPPE MAGONI / SIPA
A decree published in mid-September defines the criteria opening the automatic recognition of an occupational disease to caregivers contaminated by Covid-19.
Automatic recognition granted only to caregivers who have developed very severe forms of the coronavirus.
For all the others, begins an obstacle course to obtain recognition as an occupational disease.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran had made a promise at the beginning of the summer: caregivers infected with Covid-19 would obtain recognition as an occupational disease.
And there are tens of thousands of them who have contracted the coronavirus while treating their patients, whether in the Covid unit, in the emergency room, in nursing homes or in city medicine.
In turn, they suffered intense fatigue, pain or even breathing difficulties specific to this disease still unknown a few months ago.
Some caregivers have even lost their lives and many others are still feeling the long-term effects of Covid-19 several months after their contamination.
So, many hope to have their Covid-19 recognized as an occupational disease and thus benefit from more comprehensive care.
A decree published on September 14 in the Official Journal thus defines the criteria for obtaining automatic recognition of the coronavirus as an occupational disease.
But in practice, the criteria adopted make this recognition very difficult to obtain.
Very restrictive criteria for obtaining automatic recognition
In accordance with the decree, only caregivers who have suffered from “acute respiratory illnesses caused by an infection with SARS-CoV2, (…) and who have required oxygen therapy or any other form of ventilatory assistance can benefit from automatic recognition as an occupational disease. , certified by medical reports, or resulting in death ”.
Clearly, only caregivers who have developed the most severe forms of the coronavirus are concerned.
“It is despicable, protests Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Professionals (SNPI).
We were contaminated by the government's fault.
Should we remember that we had no masks, no overcoats, that we worked with trash bags on our backs?
And there, we are denied this right to recognition as an occupational disease!
It really is a slap in the face ”.
A feeling shared by Ludovic Boillon, health referent of the FO union: "We were told that we were at war, we mobilized at the risk of our own health to see that even today, the government is making fun of us. ".
"Everything is done not to grant this automatic recognition"
According to a census carried out by Public Health France, to date, around 31,000 hospital caregivers have contracted Covid-19.
“In detail, nurses (28% of cases) and nursing assistants (23%) are the professions most affected by coronavirus contaminations and this count excludes city carers, underlines Thierry Amouroux.
But above all, the decree excludes 98% of contaminated caregivers from this automatic recognition.
It is institutional mistreatment, it leaves us in disillusionment and anger, because we gave ourselves without counting and there, the government is cheating on our rights, we cannot do less ”.
On closer inspection, "this table of criteria for the automatic recognition of Covid-19 as an occupational disease for caregivers as established in the decree is extremely restrictive, observes Me Eric Rocheblave, lawyer specializing in labor law and social security law.
The criterion of placement under oxygen therapy only concerns an infinite number of coronavirus patients.
All the more so as the constant improvement in the therapeutic management of patients tends to further reduce the use of oxygen therapy.
The very restrictive definition retained by this decree is not correlated with the reality of the disease, notes the lawyer.
The aim of the game is for there to be as little recognition as possible for occupational disease which is automatically granted ”.
"That's exactly it: everything is done to prevent as much as possible the caregivers from obtaining this recognition", adds Ludovic Boillon.
Why restrict access to this automatic recognition so much?
"Obtaining recognition as an occupational disease equates the coronavirus with an accident at work: the employee is then protected and specific rights are open to him: the duration of his coverage and the amount of his daily allowances will not be the same, decrypts Me Rocheblave, and all health costs related to the occupational disease will be fully covered, nothing will be the responsibility of the contaminated caregiver ”.
And that's not all: "The employee or public official benefiting from this recognition as an occupational disease can then seek the inexcusable fault of the employer by demonstrating that he has not sufficiently protected him, adds the lawyer. .
This is typically the case for caregivers of the first wave who did not have the necessary protective equipment.
In this case, the employer can potentially be considered at fault because if he has not done everything possible to ensure the safety of his agents or employees: he has failed in his obligation of reinforced means ”.
The employer's inexcusable fault commitment “opens up the employee's rights to compensation related to this fault,” adds Me Rocheblave.
Obviously, everything is done to restrict access to this automatic recognition so as not to enlarge the hole in Social Security ”.
An obstacle course
Therefore, "all caregivers suffering from persistent Covid, who have generally had forms considered not very serious of the coronavirus, but who endure side effects and long-term sequelae are excluded from automatic recognition as occupational disease, jointly denounce Thierry Amouroux and Ludovic Boillon.
For them, it is the obstacle course which is announced ”.
"At the risk of seeing their rights reduced, which is damaging," comments Me Rocheblave.
However, "we still do not know what will be the long-term evolution of persistent Covid cases, the evolution of the sequelae, this is why recognition as an occupational disease is essential", insist Ludovic Boillon and Thierry Amouroux.
For all these caregivers who have developed a form considered to be mild Covid-19, it will be necessary to go through a classic application for recognition as an occupational disease.
“It is not because we do not meet the criteria of the occupational disease table that we cannot obtain this recognition, reassures Me Rocheblave.
But in a classic application process, we do not benefit from the automatic presumption of recognition.
The procedures are more difficult and longer.
It is necessary to enter a regional commission for recognition of occupational disease.
It is more complicated because we must provide proof that we have been exposed to Covid-19 in the performance of these functions, that it is in this context that we contracted it and that led to a deterioration in his state of health.
And the delays can be very long: months at least, even up to four to five years if the procedure goes to litigation, ”he says.
Temporary nurse, Jean-François contracted the coronavirus during the first wave, in March.
“I was on a mission in the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris, right in the eye of the storm, and without FFP2 masks.
I 'also learned later that almost all my colleagues in the service had contracted Covid-19 ”.
Arrested for two weeks, Jean-François then returned to work and has been experiencing episodes of intense fatigue regularly since his contamination.
On the advice of his doctor, a few months ago he took steps with the Health Insurance to obtain recognition of his coronavirus as an occupational disease.
"But to date, I have had no feedback, I relaunched, I was simply told that my file was being studied, but I have no idea when I will have a response. and I don't know at all if I will get this recognition ”.
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