‘Palms’ staffers stage protest

Jun 05, 2015 News

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…call for “political” appointees to go, bemoan victimization
The blaze of the sun yesterday morning did little to deter disgruntled staffers of the Palms Geriatric Home who staged a protest calling for a revamp of the seniors’ home administration officials.

The protestors who gathered on the lawns of the Brickdam, Georgetown facility recorded their dissatisfaction with the overall management of the palms, including the conditions endured by both employees and elderly patients.
The disgruntled staffers claimed that they have repeatedly been made the subjects of unwarranted victimization, but “enough is enough.” In their calls for change, the staffers demanded that several key figures, including the Director of Social Security and the facility’s Assistant Administrator, must go.
The staffers took to the lawns in solidarity with one porter after the administrators summoned the police to have him removed from the premises. They contended that the porter did not deserve that treatment and such an action was tantamount to victimization.
At the centre of yesterday’s controversy was Delon King, the porter who made headlines last year after he took to the rooftops last December, calling for a raise of pay.

The staffers said that though the administrators did not renew his contract since the last December debacle, the situation had a turnaround when Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes heard their woes and instructed that he be reinstated.
They said King had been on the job since last week, but yesterday the administrators sought to remove him, unlawfully. The staffers said instructions were sent to the matron to stop the porter from working there. “They could call this boy (the porter) rain or sun, he comes and help them do anything.”
As the group stood on the laws, other staffers also commented on the situation as they stood watching on from their appointed posts. Among those who protested were cooks, maids, porters and nurses.
“We’re fighting for our rights, enough is enough! We were silent all the time!” the staffers protested. “We want dey go along their way. You ain’t getting no satisfaction. They’re victimizing people. These are political appointees,” the staffers complained.

“Why is it they tormenting us? The patients ain’t even getting proper food to eat. Some of the nurses frighten to talk, because they are on contract,” Abiola Williams, a permanent staff who had been employed there for 17 years, said angrily.
She opined that had she been a contract worker she would have been sacked for speaking out.
The staffers were contending too that the administration brought an “imposter” from a private cleaning firm, claiming he was their supervisor. “He don’t work at Human Services and because I asked why must he be my supervisor and put it in black and white, I open a whole can of worms; every day they have a problem. Since you talk, they ready to jump down yuh throat. You’re getting a letter for this, you’re getting a letter for that,” said Rosa Daniels, another longstanding employee.
“Look the condition we working under and when we talk they victimize us,” staffers said before taking this publication on a tour of one of the buildings.
Another male staffer said too that instructions had reached his immediate boss that the administration no longer wanted him in the compound yesterday.
“Because I was standing here, he just come and tell me I must come out the compound; they don’t want me here. The boss man told her to snap a picture of me saying I was in the crowd.”
One nurse complained bitterly that she was made to manage an entire ward on her own, while she was pregnant. “They say I am not qualified for gratuity and this year they’re saying it again. I need my money. I’ve been working for four months without my salary.”
The nurse said she is a mother of three struggling to survive.
“I work with my big belly and now they say I can’t get my money. You got to come and see what is going on. It’s not easy for one nurse to run a ward,” the nurse emphasised.
The staff made no qualms as they intimated that the conditions were substandard at the palms for not only them but also the patients. In one ward this newspaper visited, there was a reported dead animal beneath the building and it reeked.
The nurses emphasised that it was unhealthy, stating that the animal had been left there for days. “In here it’s so unhealthy, while the administrators them sit up there and do whatever. They come in the ward with their long boots and gloves on their hands. They just come here to dictate,” the staffers said.
The areas where the laundered clothes of the patients were supposed to be hung was taken over by large bush and makeshift lines were made under the building of the ward visited. Kaieteur News noticed windows that had been displaced and left open. Staffers complained that it made them and the residents feel unsafe, yet nothing had been done about it.
The nurses’ room in that flat had two hospital-sized beds, and a table. Uneven and shaky floors were in the wards as well as nurses’ room. Of note, many of the patients at the Palms move around in wheelchairs.
The nurses registered disdain at the cupboards where the patients’ clothes were being kept, as well as the kitchen, which had basic items like cups and plates. “Donation comes here every time and God knows what they do with it. This is the condition here and they sit up there doing nothing. You can’t talk for your rights,” one nurse said.
They said despite complaints and calls for improvement, nothing was being done. Attempts to contact the Assistant Administration proved futile.

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