Care workers back industrial action at Oberstown young offenders’ campus
Residential care workers and night supervising staff have backed industrial action by a margin of 95% in a dispute over the safety of clients and staff at the Oberstown detention centre in Lusk, County Dublin. IMPACT and SIPTU, say staff and residents at the understaffed centre, are exposed to daily risk of violent assault.
The most recent official figures revealed over 100 violent incidents in Oberstown last year, almost half of which were classed as ‘critical’. Critical assaults and injuries necessitated a total of 3,005 employee sick days, involving 65 staff members.
The Oberstown campus currently caters for 48 under-18s, including a mix of vulnerable young offenders and violent criminals with multiple convictions for serious offences.
The industrial action is likely to include work stoppages, during which emergency cover will be provided. The turnout in the ballot was 91%.
The move comes against the background of a high and growing number of attacks on staff since the expansion of the State’s only youth detention centre to facilitate the transfer of offenders from the prison service.
SIPTU official Ray Stanley said the unions had raised safety concerns on a daily basis in recent years. “While there has been a management response, it has been wholly inadequate and totally in effective. Meanwhile, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs don’t want to know. As a result, dedicated staff feel they have been forced to back industrial action,” he said.
The staff concerned work at three schools on the campus: Oberstown Boys School, Oberstown Girls School and Trinity House. Responsibility for the campus was transferred from the Department of Justice to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2012.
IMPACT official Tom Hoare said: “A series of policy decisions has left Oberstown care workers doing the work of prison staff with the facilities and equipment of a residential care home. The campus is badly designed and understaffed, with inadequate safety equipment and procedures to deal with a mix of vulnerable young people and violent offenders. The result is a daily risk of serious assault, which leaves many of the staff literally in fear of their lives as they leave for work each day.
The unions say:
- The expansion and refurbishment of the complex was badly planned and implemented, resulting in a totally unsafe living and working environment
- Subsequent stop-gap measures, which were supposed to minimise risk to staff and residents, have been both inadequate and ineffective
- Staff are denied appropriate personal protection and safety equipment
- Staff recruitment and retention problems, coupled with absences due to assaults, have left the facility understaffed and incapable of dealing safely with the numbers of offenders in the unit.