B1 – Intermediate
They are clearly the heroes during this extremely difficult times. They are the health workers including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. With all the work that they do for us, how do we repay them?
There will be an increase in its health workers’ salary in France. The pay rise is a reward for the hard work of health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read this lesson on health workers’ salary.
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2007/200716-health-workers-1.html
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “applaud” mean here, “During the outbreak, millions of French people applauded nurses and doctors.“? Use it in your own sentence.
- What does “protest” mean, “Unions asked them to stay away as a protest.” Use it in your own sentence.
- What does the word “staff” mean, “The unions said the government had to do more to protect staff and keep them safe.“? Use it in your own sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- Do you think health workers deserved this pay rise? Why or why not?
- Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated?
- How were health workers’ hard work recognized or how were they rewarded during the pandemic in your country?
22 replies on “French Health Workers’ Pay Rise”
1. Do you think health workers deserved this pay rise? Why or why not?
Well, in my opinion, healthcare workers should have a good salary both in normal times and during a pandemic, because their work is important. Perhaps during a pandemic the effort is greater, and I think that during this time they can earn more because they work long hours, but not because of the risk. Firefighters don’t earn more money for putting out fires, police officers don’t earn more money when they have to deal with a difficult situation… There are professions that involve risks, and you know that when you decide to pursue them.
2. Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated?
I have no idea about this, I can only say that they disagree with their salaries, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. I have two cousins who are nurses and their salaries are very, very good.
3. How were health workers’ hard work recognized or how were they rewarded during the pandemic in your country?
People applauded them during the pandemic, in the days of isolation. I don’t know anything about other benefits.
You did a good job sharing your opinions about this matter.
Here is how to write these sentences better:
Way to go!
1. Of course, I absolutely agree with this pay rise. Health workers made an enormous effort during the pandemic, risking their lives and those of their families, especially during the initial phases when there was not enough personal protection equipment.
2. I think salaries and benefits depends on several factors, like speciality and the place of work (private or public). In general, I think health workers should be paid better but, more importantly, they should have better work conditions with no over-extended periods of work or too many patients in a short time.
3. People applauded health workers every day at 20h from their homes, but apart from that, I do not think the government made any effort to compensate or improve their benefits.
Good work sharing your thoughts about this topic.
Here is a sentence you can revise to improve by avoiding using parentheses:
Have fun with your writing practice!
1. Do you think health workers deserved this pay rise? Why or why not? Yes, of course! I agree with unions that they deserve even more, because it is a profession that is not well recognized. In addition, health workers sometimes have to deal with patients and patients’ families for circumstances that do not depend on them but on the health care system. They work under a lot of pressure and assume a big responsibility with patients health and that should be compensated.
2. Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated? No, in Spain the health workers are continuously protesting for their bad conditions: many on call shifts, a heavy workload because the system is collapsed and they assumed more patients than they should and low salary.
3. How were health workers’ hard work recognized or how were they rewarded during the pandemic in your country? The goverment was late with the resources for COVID-19 pandemic and health workers need to give that service without the proper conditions and materials. The citizens applauded the health workers every day at 8 pm but they were not recognized or compensated by the state after all that effort during pandemic.
Welcome to the Phoneenglish Blog! Hope this writing exercise helps you improve your skills further.
Take a look at how this sentence can be improved with better word choices:
Keep writing!
1. Yes, I think health workers deserved this pay rise due to extra work and risk that they suffered during the pandemic months.
2. I think health workers in my country were not properly compensated. After a few years I think the effort, they made has been forgotten.
3. In my country, during the pandemic, the health workers’ hard work were recognized with applause every night for the first few months. People applauded nurses and doctors. But then health workers were angry because there wasn’t much security for them in the hospitals.
Great work continuing with your writing practice.
Take a look at how this sentence can be improved a little bit with better word choice:
Keep at it! You are doing a good job.
1.- Do you think health workers deserved this pay rise? Why or why not?
Yes, absolutely!! I think this pay rise is a way to recognize the work they did during the pandemic and daily effort they put into public (and private) healthcare. In my opinion this pay rise should be applied in all countries because the work of health workers was fundamental to keeping the situation under control during the pandemic.
2.- Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated?
There are differences between public and private healthcare. Regarding public healthcare, I think health workers are not properly compensated for their work. They work a lot of unpaid overtime, in poor conditions and often lack the necessary of tools to do their jobs.
3.- How were health workers’ hard work recognized or how were they rewarded during the pandemic in your country?
I’m not to sure about that, but like in France, during the pandemic people applauded every day to show appreciation for health workers.
It is clear that you intend to improve your skills further. Keep at it.
Take note of some minor corrections in this sentence:
Great job so far!
Yes, I think health workers deserved this pay rise because during pandemic they have to face difficult situations, including witnessing many people die alone in hospitals without their families. They also had to work many extra hours and risk their lives every day being close to people infected with COVID 19.
Salaries and benefits of health workers in Spain aren’t properly compensated. After de pandemic, many health workers had to take sick leave because they were suffering from anxiety, depression, or other physical conditions caused by working extra hours. I think they may may have recieved some salary compensation but it wasn’t enough considering the difficult situation they had to face every day. Overall, their salaries should be higher.
Health workers in Spain recieved some compensations but may believe they were not enough. In terms of moral support, citizens showed great appreciation by applauding every evening at 8 P.M and referring them as heroes.
In therms of salary or benefits, some regional governments offered temporary financial bonuses of extra payments. However there was no nationwide permanent salary increase.
Although some hospitals provided psychological support, many professionals reported that it was insufficient. Overall, while there were some efforts to compensate healthcare workers, many felt that their efforts were undervalued and not properly rewarded.
Great going with practicing your writing skills quite regularly. Keep it up!
Instead of:
You may say:
Well done!
1- They deserved it for their effort and dedication during a difficult time.
2- The situation for healthcare workers in my country isn’t the best, because I don’t think they’re well paid.
3- There was no recognition as such.
Good work writing your answers!
Here is how this sentence can be better expressed:
Always practice to keep improving your writing skills.
1. I think that the health workers deserve their salary increase, but not during a pandemic, long before.
2. Salary and benefits of health workers in Spain, I think that they should receive more Money for their job. They are so important for the society. a lot of health employers are working a lot of hours
and they don’t get paid for it
3. During pandemic, at 8 o’clock people aplaluded to recognize the extra work of health workers.
It’s good that you keep doing your best to share your opinions about our subjects!
Here is how you can express this sentence a bit better:
Keep practicing!
1. Do you think health workers should be given this pay rise? Why or why not?
I think so above all in France, because there was several years of delay in their pay raise. Also I think that this isn’t enough and it is necessary to invest in improve their working conditions
2. Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated?
I really don’t know, but currently, some doctors are complaining about their working conditions.
I know the doctors who work in hospitals don’t earn a lot of money, they really earn money when they work in the emergency service for 24 hours.
3. How are health workers’ hard work recognized or how are they rewarded during the pandemic in your country?
As in France, every day we applauded them but I believe that wasn’t enough.
I think the most important thing is that they have all the resources when they work. For that, the government have to increase the investment in the National Health Care and in the research
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic.
See how you can write this sentence better:
Keep going with this exercise to further improve!
1. Do you think health workers should be given this pay rise? They deserve so. They have been taking care of us while COVID season. They take care of our health. Why or why not? Because, they have to work really hard for our health, they deserve something back in return.
2. Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. In Spain health workers are not paid as they deserve. They wok so many hours that are not paid back. Do you think they are properly compensated?No. In every kind of job if you work extra hours you are compensated. If you have a lot of tasks ypu are compensated too.
3. How are health workers’ hard work recognized or how are they rewarded during the pandemic in your country? At the beginning of the pandemic we somehow recognized their hard work by clapping. Meant something to them. But that was it.
See some revisions you can make in your response to the first question:
Cheers to more entries from you!
1.Do you think health workers should be given this pay rise? Why or why not?
I think that due to COVID pandemic, health workers have an important paper to help people to reduce cases. Health workers are getting very effort for contributed to COVID people will be healthy and they are putting in danger their lives. Also, they are spending a lot of time in hospitals and I think that it is very important that society values their work and pay according the work performed. Due to this reason, I would like to this pay extra should be done in all countries.
2. Talk about salaries and benefits of health workers in your country. Do you think they are properly compensated?
In my country I think that all process of contraction should be change because, at the height of pandemic, some hospitals were contracted some specific health workers but when the pandemic seems better, all the last people contracted were thrown out of work. Due to this, I think that the works of these type of health workers are so important and I think that is not properly compensated.
3.How are health workers’ hard work recognized or how are they rewarded during the pandemic in your country?
During pandemic, in my country, all people who wanted to come out to the terraces to applaud the health workers.
Great work on your responses! They were very well-though of and written. Keep it up.
Here’s one sentence you can write a bit better:
See you in your next entries!