Oberstown Residents On Roof Amid Staff Safety Strike
A group of young residents at the Oberstown Detention Campus have climbed up onto the roof of one of the buildings. It comes as workers at the facility – which houses young offenders – are in the middle of a work stoppage.
Workers here at the Oberstown have been staging an eight hour work stoppage over health and safety concerns, and within the past hour it’s understood a group of young residents at the detention centre have gotten up onto one of the buildings.
Some of the workers have gone to try and help the situation while the garda helicopter is also at the scene.
Here’s IMPACT’s Niall Shanahan.
A spokesperson for the Oberstown told 98fm News they are dealing with an incident at the centre at the moment and is not in a position to comment further.
SIPTU and IMPACT trade unions say that strikes are being held in response to poor safety measures and increasing assaults on the campus.
A resolution to the dispute has so far been unsuccessful, after four hour work stoppages were held in May while talks at the Workplace Relations Commission took place.
IMPACT official Tom Hoare said “While there has been consistent efforts to resolve this dispute, the staff are still facing the daily risk of assault and injury."
"Oberstown care workers are doing the work of prison staff with the facilities and equipment of a residential care home. The number of assaults on staff has continued to grow since the expansion of Oberstown to facilitate the transfer of offenders from the prison service.”
He went on to say the new campus suffers from a poor design with a lack of adequate safety equipment to deal with problems which can arise.
Over 100 violent incidents happened in the facility last year, half of which were critical, according to figures from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. These assaults contributed to staff taking a combined total of 3,005 sick days.
Full emergency cover will remain in place during the stoppage.