STAFF AT OBERSTOWN Children Detention Campus are to stage a 48-hour work stoppage next week as an ongoing dispute over staffing and resources escalates.<\/p>\n
Trade union F\u00f3rsa has served notice that its members will stop work from 12.01am next Monday, 31 August, until 11.59pm on Tuesday, 1 September.<\/p>\n
Before then, members are due to hold a 12-hour stoppage between 9am and 9pm on Tuesday, with a picket outside the campus.<\/p>\n
The action will be the fourth in a series of weekly stoppages which began earlier this month.<\/p>\n
F\u00f3rsa said there will be no exemptions from the industrial action for social care work, with the only derogation applying to catering at the campus.<\/p>\n
The escalation comes a day after Oberstown director Damien Hernon called for a \u201cceasefire\u201d in the dispute<\/a>, warning that the industrial action itself had the potential to increase risks at the State\u2019s only child-detention facility.<\/p>\n He urged workers to \u201cstep this down\u201d to allow efforts to resolve the dispute to progress.<\/p>\n F\u00f3rsa members have been engaged in industrial action over what they say are inadequate staffing levels at the campus, which consistently operates close to capacity.<\/p>\n Assistant general secretary Deirdre O\u2019Connell said today that the union\u2019s members wanted a lasting solution which ensured the safety of both staff and young people at Oberstown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Minister and the department need to engage here,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [Department of Children]\u2018s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Connell warned that the dispute was \u201cset to continue\u201d unless those concerns were acknowledged by Oberstown management and the Department of Children.<\/p>\n The union said it remained available for \u201cmeaningful, solution-focused engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n Oberstown has disputed F\u00f3rsa\u2019s characterisation of staffing and safety at the campus.<\/p>\n