Family members of people living in a Greater Toronto Area group home say they are worried for their loved ones’ well-being as the home’s management is providing limited information as to how their loved ones will be cared for after support workers walked off the job earlier this week.
Support staff at Central West Specialized Development Services — a provincially funded supportive living community for adults with developmental disabilities — walked off the job on Wednesday evening more than 40 days after CWSDS management requested a no-board report from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.
The workers, who are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 249, have been replaced in the meantime by third-party agency staff who will care for residents while the strike is ongoing.
Julie Geiss, president of the local, says union members are looking for better wages, mental health supports and better working conditions in a new collective agreement. She says members have voted against two offers from the employer before going on strike Wednesday. Those offers featured very little changes, and Geiss said workers felt the employer was using intimidation and bullying tactics to push a new agreement through.
In an emailed statement, CWSDS CEO Patricia Kyle wrote that she “categorically rejects” allegations of intimidation or bullying. She said CWSDS — which offered employees an average wage increase of 6.5 per cent and expanded mental health benefits — has acted in good faith throughout negotiations and “remains committed to reaching a competitive and sustainable agreement.”
She also said the home’s “top priority is the safety and well-being” of those in CWSDS’ care while the strike continues.
But Rabia Khedr, whose brother Shah Khan lives in the main CWSDS facility, says she has a number of “unanswered questions” about the quality of care her brother will receive while his regular support staff are on the picket line and feels shut out by CWSDS management.
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Khedr’s concerns about CWSDS began last month when the home’s management moved residents from group homes in Burlington, Halton Hills, Mississauga and Oakville into the company’s main Oakville facility on Bond Street without consulting family members or getting consent in anticipation of a labour disruption. She says Shah, who is non-verbal and already lived in the main facility, suddenly got five new housemates who moved into repurposed activity rooms, making for what she described as an overcrowded and stressful environment.
Since the move, Khedr says she’s frustrated over receiving no information about how residents will be cared for while all residents are housed in the Bond Street location. She’s also even more concerned for her brother’s health and safety after an injury went untreated.
Khedr says in a recent home visit, she noticed Shah had a cut on his finger that looked infected. Her family took him to an emergency room doctor who prescribed him with antibiotics and ointment to treat the wound, and her family gave them to a support staff when dropping Shah back at the home with instructions on how to treat the wound.
Khedr says she asked the home to see an incident report on how Shah was injured but received no explanation about it. She also alleges Shah had to be taken back to the doctor four days later because his injury was going untreated at the home.
“This may seem as a minor injury, but if I’m not to ask these questions, if there aren’t staff there who know him to know he’s physically hurt, this isn’t normal for him, then what’s going to happen to his finger and that infection?” Khedr said.
Kyle did not address a question from The Canadian Press about Shah’s injury. As well, she did not disclose which company the third-party agency staff were from.
Jan Beddoe is another concerned family member. Her son Chris, who is 46 and has Prader-Willi syndrome, was moved into the main Oakville facility last month with just one cardboard box of his clothing. She says though Chris is doing “remarkably well” in his new surroundings, he misses his regular support workers and was visibly emotional when seeing picketing workers when being picked up for a weekend outing on Saturday.
“He saw some of the staff he knows and he started to cry because he misses them so much and they are his family,” Beddoe said in a phone interview.
“He’s very worried about them,” she said, adding she also wants to see a swift resolution to the labour dispute that has put staff “between a rock in a hard place.”
Beddoe also has her own stressors over the move. Chris, who has an uncontrollable appetite as part of his Prader-Willi syndrome, has gained 14 pounds since moving into the main facility, which Beddoe says is something she’s had to flag to the house manager. She said she’s also had to be in touch with house management about how to change his colostomy bag, which added stress to the situation.
Beddoe says while agency staff have been responsive to her contact with them, management has not been responsive to families when inquiring about their loved ones’ care.
Beddoe says she isn’t as worried about Chris’s well-being as other family members as she also lives in Oakville and is quite engaged in his care — something she recognizes is not the case for many CWSDS residents who have aging parents or families who live further away.
“We all deserve to feel safe and secure and with our homes and these guys don’t have it,” Beddoe said.
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