Staff at St. Mary’s Must Use Personal Sick Time to Quarantine

Our medical staff around the state of Maine is on the front lines of battling COVID-19 each and every day. They are putting not only themselves but their families at risk. This is evident during the daily briefings which indicate a good portion of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 belongs to medical staff.

No matter the industry, people are asked to quarantine themselves if they display any symptoms of COVID-19 whatsoever. This is extra important for medical staff. Maine's largest employer, MaineHealth, is offering their staff paid leave if they need to self-quarantine. Northern Light Health is offering something similar. Despite that, according to the Sun Journal, the staff at St. Mary's in Lewiston must use their own personal sick time or vacation time for quarantine.

In the article, nurse Harold Herschlag notes that Walmart offers a better COVID-19 benefit by allowing its employees to take full employer-paid leave.

If a newer employee needs to be quarantined they are told to borrow against future earned time so they don't have to go without pay.

What do you think? Is this a smart money-saving move for the hospital? Or is this a slap in the face to our front line heroes? Chime in using the app.