22/08/2020 Comments are off SIPTU Health
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SIPTU calls for implementation of nursing home expert panel recommendations

SIPTU representatives have called for the immediate implementation of the recommendations contained in the report of the COVID 19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel if the private sector is to continue to play a role in the delivery of elder care.

SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said: “SIPTU representatives have long campaigned for better care for all patients and better jobs for all workers in our health service. The recommendations contained in this report must be immediately actioned by the Department of Health and the HSE as they provide a way of ensuring a better outcome for patients and the health workers who provide and deliver these essential services. 

“SIPTU representatives made a detailed submission and contribution to the Expert Panel and it is welcome that many of our recommendations are evident in the final report. The recommendations clearly vindicate our union’s longstanding position on the need for high quality training, education and continuing professional development for all nursing home workers. 

“The reality is, Covid-19 has brutally exposed many of the shortcomings within the private nursing home sector. We believe the Department of Health and the HSE must now move to provide the necessary resources and capacity to make sure the provision of health care for our older people is improved to the appropriate level.”

He added: “SIPTU is now calling for a full review into the pay and conditions of workers in the sector. This review must include trade unions as key stakeholders, and as the representative voice of workers in the sector. Our members believe there cannot be two standards of provision of health care in Ireland. We are calling for the HSE to be charged with the primary responsibility for setting the standards and delivering the training to all nursing home workers.”

19/08/2020 Comments are off SIPTU Health
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Sisters of Charity workers to hold protest in Dublin today

Sisters of Charity workers will highlight their demand for management to meet them and pay them a fair redundancy, in a socially distanced protest outside their former place of work.

The Labour Court has recommended that staff employed by the Sisters of Charity – run independently, but funded by the State – should receive redundancy payments equivalent to those paid to health workers in the public service. 

11/08/2020 Comments are off SIPTU Health
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Union representatives to meet KPMG liquidators to discuss a fair redundancy package for St Monica’s workers

Union representatives have tonight (Tuesday, 11th August) confirmed that representatives from SIPTU, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Fórsa Trade Union representatives will meet with KPMG, the provisional liquidator of the St. Monica’s Nursing Home tomorrow (Wednesday, 12th August) in Dublin.

SIPTU Health Organiser, Brian Condra, said: “It not acceptable that instead of engaging with union representatives, accepting an invitation to a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) conciliation conference, that the Sisters of Charity would rather walk away from their responsibilities, not pay our members a fair redundancy package and simply send in the liquidators. This is no way to treat staff who have provided years of outstanding service for residents, their families and our communities. Even now at the eleventh hour, we would call on the Sisters of Charity to do the right thing and meet with their staff as a matter of urgency.”

INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Lorraine Monaghan, said: “The Sisters of Charity are sitting on substantial assets and have the means to pay a fair redundancy package to the loyal, committed staff in the St. Monica’s Nursing Home. We are calling on them to immediately engage with the unions and agree to release the necessary funds to ensure all staff receive a redundancy payment that the Labour Court has deemed fair and reasonable for this type of service.”

Fórsa Assistant General Secretary, Seán McElhinney, said: “The residents of St Monica’s and their families have been quick to express support for the workforce, while the Sisters of Charity have remained silent. It might seem to some that the Sisters are hiding behind the bureaucracy of the liquidation, and having scant regard for the livelihoods that are being lost.”

He added: “The residents, and their families, have seen, first hand, the care and compassion with which the workers of St Monica’s have discharged their duties for years. For those same workers to now be treated with such profound dispassion will be a great shame to the Sisters of Charity, if they decline to come forward and engage with the Unions.”

10/08/2020 Comments are off SIPTU Health
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Union representatives demand emergency meeting with Sisters of Charity management

SIPTU, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Fórsa Trade Union representatives have today (Monday 10th August) written to Sisters of Charity management seeking an emergency meeting to discuss the payment of a fair redundancy package to staff in Caritas Convalescent Centre, St. Mary’s Centre Telford and St. Monica’s Nursing Home. 

The call comes following second day of lunchtime protest outside St. Monica’s Nursing Home in Dublin today.

SIPTU Health Organiser, Brian Condra, said: “The loyal, dedicated staff in all three facilities owned by the Sisters of Charity, have provided years of outstanding service and have always put the patients first.  In recent months, they faced the pandemic head on and continued to provide an optimum service to ensure patients were cared for, supported and made feel safe and secure at all times. 

He added: “The Sisters of Charity must to do the right thing, considering the position our members now find themselves in, their years of dedicated service, precedent set in this area on redundancy payments and the most recent Labour Court Recommendation.

INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Lorraine Monaghan said: “The staff are devastated that they are now losing their jobs at a time of great uncertainty and are parting with their patients and colleagues. They are disappointed that the Sisters of Charity have not yet confirmed that they will play their part and put forward the necessary funds to ensure that staff receive the redundancy package that the Labour Court deems fair and reasonable.”

She added: “Union representatives are calling on the Sisters of Charity, to ensure the necessary funds will be released immediately to implement this recommendation in Caritas Convalescent Centre and that the Labour Court Recommendation will be applied in St. Mary’s Telford and St. Monica’s Nursing Home as the circumstances are the same in all three facilities.”

Fórsa Assistant General Secretary, Seán McElhinney, said: “Workers in all three facilities have provided the highest quality of care to their residents. While families and residents have expressed profound regret for the plight of the workforce, the Sisters of Charity have remained silent.

He added: “Worry and uncertainty are rife among the workforce. The Sisters of Charity can, and must, make it known that they intend to fund the recommendation of the Labour Court. The silence cannot continue.”

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