Gardaí called to nursing home row

GARDAI had to intervene yesterday morning as new employees of a nursing home were heckled as they tried to cross a picket line.

Two non-nationals and an Irish woman employed at the Springvalley Nursing Home in Enniscorthy in Wexford were escorted into their new workplace by the home’s director of nursing after gardaí were called.

Thirty four SIPTU workers at the private nursing home walked off the job on August 28 in a row over pay and conditions. The kitchen, housekeeping, cleaning and care attendants were further infuriated to find their jobs advertised in the local media just before the weekend.

Tensions heightened yesterday when the first three of the new staff attempted to cross the picket line. Director of nursing at the 50-bed home, Marjorie Molloy, said while she respects the staff’s right to protest and work for the best pay deal possible, she was left with no option but to call in the gardaí yesterday morning:

“We have 50 patients, ranging from a 32-year-old who is profoundly mentally handicapped to a 97-year-old. Their care is not suffering. I’m going to go on intervening where necessary to protect their care. We were left with no option but to call in the gardaí when it became difficult for our new staff to come in.”

She denied claims by SIPTU that un-trained local people, non-nationals with no qualifications and schoolchildren were working at the unit. One new employee is a university graduate and another is on a pre-nursing course.

The welfare of all patients continues to be the unit’s chief concern, she said.

SIPTU’s Michael Wall said a 12% pay hike offer made to his members in the run-up to the all-out picket was conditional on members losing out extra pay for Sunday cover and night work. They would also have had to decrease their hours under the proposed deal.

He criticised the unit’s directors for turning down a Labour Relations Commission offer to intervene in the matter. His members are now on strike pay only, which ranges from 60 euro for part-time workers to 95 euro for those who were employed full-time.

Mr Wall is seeking a meeting with the South Eastern Health Board which pays subvention for some of the residents in the home: “The decision to advertise the jobs is effectively terminating people’s employment, while refusing to recognise the established industrial relations machinery within the state.

“Any form of taxpayers’ money going into such a private company while they treat the LRC with such contempt is incompatible.”