MEMBERS OF TRADE union Siptu have voted in favour of 72-hour strike action at a dementia care facility in Dublin after a \u201clack of progress in talks with management\u201d.<\/p>\n
St Joseph\u2019s Centre in Shankill, Co Dublin, is the country\u2019s largest care home dedicated solely to dementia care.<\/p>\n
It is part of St John of God services and over 80 people use the centre daily.<\/p>\n
Members employed as household\/domestic staff at St Joseph\u2019s Centre have already undertaken three days of strike action this month.<\/p>\n
Siptu announced the escalation today following what it described as the \u201congoing failure of management to regrade and pay the workers rates that recognise the duties they currently carry out, such as feeding\u00a0residents\u201d.<\/p>\n
Further strike action will be held\u00a0from Monday, 27 July to Wednesday, 29 July.<\/p>\n
In June,\u00a0Siptu members voted in favour of industrial action in a ballot concerning \u201cmanagement\u2019s failure to recognise the union\u2019s claim for the regrading of household\/domestic staff\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Siptu member today remarked that \u201ccolleagues and I don\u2019t want to be out on strike\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continually asked to fill the gaps due to understaffing,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, other departments like laundry have closed, pushing the extra work onto housekeeping. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work extremely hard and want recognition for the work we do, but management has ignored us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Siptu organiser Michelle Waller said the union is \u201cextremely grateful for the support shown by the loved ones of residents, many of whom joined our members on the picket line\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said families \u201cunderstand the valuable contribution our members make every day and recognise they have been carrying out duties beyond the scope of their current grade\u201d,<\/p>\n
\u201cOur members are simply seeking recognition via a pay regrading, along with the appropriate training, to reflect the responsibilities they are already undertaking in the interests of residents,\u201d said Waller.<\/p>\n
She added that the residents are \u201cincredibly vulnerable and deserve the highest quality of care possible, which means that our members should receive the proper training and regrading\u201d.<\/p>\n
Waller said \u201cchronic understaffing should not fall on the shoulders of our members\u201d and called on management to \u201ccome to the table and speak to us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ongoing staffing challenges within the centre cannot continue to be managed through the goodwill and commitment of our members alone,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Waller said Siptu members \u201cdo not want to be away from the residents whom they care deeply about\u201d but that \u201cmanagement\u2019s inaction has led to this escalation in the dispute\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said Siptu \u201cremains available to negotiate a resolution to this dispute\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMBERS OF TRADE union Siptu have voted in favour of 72-hour strike action at a dementia care facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2926,615,61,60,43,172219,20167,239213,239214,1562,46712],"class_list":["post-566743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dementia","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-shankill","tag-siptu","tag-st-john-of-god","tag-st-josephs-centre","tag-strike","tag-trade-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}