Private nursing home contracts
Senator Gavan challenged Senator Colm Burke over nursing home costs and raised concerns about standard private-sector contracts and worker exploitation. Senator Burke defended the sector, argued that public care is more expensive, and called for a debate, which the Chair said could happen if the Leader agreed.
Yesterday our colleague Senator Colm Burke stood up and said there was a major problem in the private nursing home sector. I thought that, at last, a Fine Gael Senator was going to stand up for working people. Of course, I was wrong. His concern was about the subsidy paid to public nursing homes.
Comment on this
The Senator is wrong. He did not hear what Senator Colm Burke said at all.
Comment on this
I did. It is on the record. What I want to do is read a contract belonging to Silver Stream nursing home. It is typical of a contract in the private nursing home industry. It states the company will require staff to work a variety of shifts, including days, nights, evenings and weekends, as part of their normal working week. It states the company cannot guarantee any set working hours for staff. That is how the private nursing home industry operates. It is a standard contract. I know this because I worked on trying to organise the workers. There is considerable fear. If the staff told their employers they were members of a trade union, they would not get any hours the following week. That is the reality of how private nursing homes operate in this sector. The workers are paid the princely sum of €9.58 per hour, including a 3.5% premium for working nights and Sundays. That industry is nothing less than a disgrace. Let us have the debates and call in the Minister for Health. We will make sure we have trade unionists in the Visitors Gallery to hear exactly what is going on in the sector. Let us have no more lobbying on behalf of Nursing Homes Ireland. It refuses to engage with the real issues in the industry and, as we all know, it refuses to engage with trade unions. This affects tens of thousands of workers. Typically and unfortunately, it is mainly migrant workers who are exploited. They are living in constant fear that if they do not do what they are told, they will not get any hours the following week. The issue of low hour and zero hour contracts is a disgrace in private nursing homes. All of us in this Chamber should rally behind the workers in the industry.