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STAFF AT THE Oberstown youth detention facility are to strike in the New Year after they balloted for industrial action earlier this week.
IMPACT trade union, which represents social care workers, night supervising officers and unit managers at the Dublin facility, voted to implement the action in early 2017, citing concerns for their safety.
The action must be sanctioned by IMPACT’s executive council and it is understood this will happen in the New Year. The union has to give management at least one week’s notice before commencing industrial action.
Pat Bergin, director at the Oberstown campus, said he will engage with the Workplace Relations Commission to bring about a successful resolution to the industrial dispute.
Addressing staff fears, Bergin said a number of external reviews are underway at the campus including an operational review, health and safety review and a security review.
‘Dangerous situations’
However, IMPACT assistant general secretary Tom Hoare said management was failing to meet its health and safety obligations.
He said his members were forced to strike “as a result of management’s refusal to make personal protective clothing available in dangerous situations, where there was a high risk of assaults on staff”.
Hoare said: “Oberstown management is in denial about the level of risk to its staff. We are simply seeking the provision of adequate personal protective clothing and equipment for use when care staff encounter violence and the threat of violence.
This would be uncontroversial in any other working environment, let alone one with a long history, and continuing reality, of violent incidents and assaults on workers.
The most recent official figures supplied by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs found over 100 violent incidents in Oberstown in 2015, 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.
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It’s absolutely not acceptable that staff at oberstown in lusk are not equipped properly.These little gurriers are as bad if not worse than some of the prisoners in adult prisons. But of course the do gooders will say the poor young things have just lost their way and need all the help they can get. They can be vicious thugs capable of real harm.give the staff what they need immediately to keep them safe.
Gerry There worse than adult prisoners by a country mile. An adult prisoner mellows with age just like the rest of us. He may be still up to his old tricks with drugs etc but he likes his privacy and to be away from officers. 17 year olds want to be the big man, dont want to be told what to do etc so will fight all day long. Adult prisoners dont want to be around younger ones as they bring attention to the landing. They have there own way of quitening them down. I feel for the staff here big time.
Tazers, battons and pepper spray should sort it out.
And a couple of Rottweilers, they will not come back for seconds after a few nips !
@Pilib O Muiregan: i pity you. such a stupid way to deal with kids
@Living The Laws: Your right – half of them should never have been born. Its not their fault – their parents should probably have been neutered after their 50th conviction. Maybe this cycle we can get it right
I worked there a decade ago. Was never going to be an appropriate facility for older young people to mix with younger kids. A seventeen year old presents very different issues to a fourteen year old.
Senior Management not fit for purpose …track record at this location and previous posts very poor; more ego than skill and leadership
just watching the Dail live Clare Daley, talking about prisoners been giving Solitary Confinement
talking about their human and this practice should be stopped, god help us nothing about these filth and what they did to their victims and nothing about prisoners who have 50 up to 200 previous convections to treat them with kid gloves and let them have more time out of their cells and employ social workers to help them, prison officers are told now not to shout, or use excessive force on the poor darlings. the left and do gooders are destroying this country and the human right industry.
What do you expect from Clare Daly? She’s quite happy to stand surety for those charged with serious criminal offences.
Riot police….. Que liberal lefty outrage
Send in Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a spell in one of his chain gangs would sort these young savages out.
“External reviews are taking place”. Priceless, I would assume that these reviews are being carried out by the same people that are responsible for this chaos in the first place. And I can effectively guess what their answer will be, “More of the same”. Because to do a 180 on it would mean that would have to admit they got it totally wrong in the first place, something they will never do.
Ah but the poor kid’s came from a deprived background and when they break the law they are sent to play school and can go nuts and hit the staff, and don’t forget they are been given €200 clothing allowance and €50 to buy themselves a present…. LITTLE S CUMBAGS I KNOW WHAT I’D GIVE THEM!!!! WHY has nobody set up a BOOTCAMP A REAL ONE LIKE THE AMERICANS HAVE AND THAT WOULD PUT MANNERS ON THEM.
The next JOY customers
the staff should resign and allow people who are skilled to deal with the residents take up the challenge
authorities should resource the services appropriately
What staff are skilled in this department ? And if they are skilled why are they not working in this place ?
Promise to give them a €250 bonus for Christmas, that should quieten them down…
The young people in Oberstown have always received a clothing allowance at Christmas, together with a personal present. Also used to happen for birthdays.
@Dermot Cronin: They are there because they are criminals yet they have all the facilities they could want, they should do hard time. A proper deterrent.
@Stop #TTIP: yes, lets think everyone who doesn’t conform as a criminal
the criminals running the country have all the facilities they want. should we just maintain that also?
you really should think before you type
@Living The Laws: By not conforming is not the same as breaking the law, perhaps you should use a dictionary before you make stupid comments.
@Stop #TTIP: sure mate, you feel good about pointing out the fact that you confuse a dictionary with a thesaurus.
now stop being stupid and debate the issue
clearly the staff and facility is not capable of dealing with the residents. if people can’t hack the job then leave since the nature of the resident aint going to change any time soon
Ok living the law The staff all resign tommo ? What happens next ? Your in charge, where do you put them and under whos care ?
@Living The Laws: No, it’s definitely a dictionary, perhaps you should get one.
The words non-conformist and criminal have no co-relation whatsoever.
You seem somewhat confused.
I’ll leave you in your ignorance, goodnight.
@Derek Trotter: I dunno Del. Maybe we’ll get grandad and rodney to sort it
seriously though
surely it is necessary to ensure that the staff are skilled and trained and prepared. i don’t envy anyone doing their job. and perhaps my comments were a little insensitive to the staff. but most places where you haven’t got the skills to cope then your employer, in this case the government, trains you to cope, or agree that perhaps a different role is for you and someone more skilled could take over.
@Stop #TTIP: its lost on you. sleep well
Living the law This job is for nobody but people have to work. There is no training that can prepare you for this job. Until you have experienced it you really cant describe it. No collage course can you help deal with these kids. They tried the prison way in pats and it was deemed wrong. There now trying the nice way and its failing. Trust me the staff who work here do train themselves and want the best for the kids. Im not saying we give up but its impossible. Its easy to say this is not good enough. Very difficult to fix it.
@Derek Trotter: very very difficult
i realise the staff do their best. they do their best to go in every day and try to perform their duties. if the only option open to the people who do that for a wage and deal with stuff that the vast majority sweep under the carpet must go on strike to highlight the situation then it is truly a sorry situation for all of irish society. and it implies there is no desire in government to support them.
just today:
irish water
cysitc fibrosis
front line staff in what are essential youth detention centres
health service in general
homelessness
poverty
even those lucky enough to be in a good job are crippled with levies
average age of couples starting a family has gone up
rent is terrible and with companies like facebook looking to open up in cork then the locals there will come under the same pressure as people from Dublin
DOB complaining about death threats!!! how many people who read this have felt threatened over the last ten years by authorities, utility companies, debt collectors, stress……
and our unelected government have concluded that some warped accounting policy allows multinationals to not pay their tax whilst the rest of us pay the highest
the whole thing is difficult to fix and perhaps the lack of attention to staff and residents at oberstowns is just indicative of how poorly we, as a society, are dealing with it all
Fair point Id have more respect for our elected if they admitted they got the whole st pats/oberstown situation wrong and tried to fix it. They wont and it will take the death of a staff member for them to wake up. That may sound extreme but with the fires/attacks on staff it is a very sad reality.
have your say