Unrest hits rest home

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

A large Rotorua rest home and hospital facing four days of strikes says members of the public are volunteering to look after about 70 residents.

The Nurses Organisation says almost the same number of staff at Redwood Lodge intend striking for 24 hours from Wednesday morning, and for three more days from next week, unless the owners lift pay offers of $9.80 to $11.90 an hour.

These compare with $9.60 to $11.20 paid now, and a union push to lift the range to $10 to $12.50.

Union organiser Shane Vugler said his members were "burned-out" by having to look after up to 18 residents each, so they also wanted minimum staff-to-resident ratios to protect their health as well as patient care.

He said the case of an Auckland geriatric hospital from which a nurse aide was jailed this month after being found guilty of assaulting a patient showed what could happen "if you put people under stress from continual under-staffing".

New Zealand Lifecare general manager Lynne Irwin said she did not want to "stoop" to Mr Vugler's level by commenting on his claims while the dispute remained under mediation, but denied there would be danger to patients if the strikes went ahead.

She accused him of being unfairly emotive in invoking the Auckland assault case, and said members of the public had offered to work at Redwood Lodge if needed during the strikes.

Mrs Irwin would not disclose whether the company would take them on, saying it would wait for the results of union meetings with staff today before finalising contingency plans.

She suggested Mr Vugler should have done likewise before making public statements, but he said the mediation process ended as soon as the company tabled an unacceptable offer late on Thursday, with an ultimatum that it be accepted immediately or else forfeited.

The union says it represents all but three or four of a core workforce of 70, but Mrs Irwin put staff numbers at about 90 and said the company might draw help from some of its other eight rest homes, which include Sunset Home in Blockhouse Bay.

Mr Vugler said NZ Lifecare was one of a number of privately-owned aged-care operators trying to reduce labour costs to 50 per cent of their heavily Government-subsidised income.

He said this was well below a Health Ministry funding model recommendation that rest home operators invest 66 per cent of income in staff, rising to 72 per cent for geriatric hospitals, levels achieved by most religious and community organisations in the same business.

At the same time, Mr Vugler said the company was paying 18 per cent of its income in rent to a property firm to which it claimed it was unconnected, although the union questioned the relationship.

"This dispute is a classic example of corporates putting their profit margins first and leaving the leftovers for staff and our elderly to live on."

He said staff had been faced with increasing resident ratios since NZ Lifecare bought Redwood Lodge from the Masonic Association in 2001.

Pay claim

What staff want: Between $10 and $12.50 an hour.

What they get: Between $9.60 and $11.20.