Oberstown management warns strike escalation risks safety of children and staff

Management at the Oberstown Children Detention Campus has issued a stark warning, stating that escalating industrial action by staff poses an "unacceptable risk to the safety, security and wellbeing of staff, young people and all those on campus." The situation intensifies as social care and other employees, members of the Fórsa trade union, are set to increase their work stoppage.

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the withdrawal of all frontline care staff without derogation ... creates serious operational, safeguarding and child welfare risks.

Following a 10-hour strike last week, staff will now engage in a 12-hour stoppage beginning Tuesday morning. Significantly, Fórsa has informed management that no social care staff will work through this stoppage, a departure from previous arrangements. The union has also served notice of a potential 48-hour strike starting Sunday night if the core issues remain unresolved.

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It is important to be clear that the consequences of industrial action should not be transferred on to children through increased isolation, confinement or other restrictive practices. Children should not be used ... as a means of escalating an industrial dispute.

The dispute is fundamentally about staffing levels and safety concerns within the detention campus. Management acknowledged the union members' right to strike but emphasized that the withdrawal of all frontline care staff creates "serious operational, safeguarding and child welfare risks." They expressed concern that "children should not be used... as a means of escalating an industrial dispute," highlighting the potential for increased isolation, confinement, and restrictive practices.

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the decision to strike is not an easy one, but ... [it] is driven by the concerns of the social care staff who are doing the job every day. They are the workers who can see where the difficulties lie, from the overreliance on overtime to increased risks of injury on site.

Fórsa, however, stated that the decision to strike, while difficult, is driven by the daily concerns of social care staff who witness firsthand the problems stemming from an overreliance on overtime and increased risks of injury. The union argues that years of staff shortages have undermined safety and created issues with rostering and breaks. Despite management claims of progress, including a net increase of nine frontline staff over the past year, Fórsa has not received sufficient guarantees regarding proposals to resolve the outstanding problems. They are seeking the involvement of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE) to provide assurances on implementation, arguing that the department's plans to increase capacity at Oberstown do not address current challenges.

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The DCDE’s plans to increase the number of beds at Oberstown fail to acknowledge the capacity challenges we are already dealing with. Staff and residents continue to face increased risks to personal safety. This dispute is set to continue if that reality can’t be acknowledged by Oberstown management and the department.