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'I Page 4, Whitby Free Prose, Wectesday, Febnuary 2, 1994 Union boss wants inqufry FROM PAGE 1 probleme. The 32 union empioyees, who provide life akills trainngand support services te the residents or 'clients' are inte the third week of dxeir strike for a firet contract. «rve been ini this (union) busi- ness for 20 years and rv. neyer seen anythmng like tus,» said Ryan of the. alleged prolems at Al Saints. «Ites the strangest strikeI've ever come acrosa. Itfs not for monvy and benefits but te be safe, he said. «People had te get out te pro- teet themselves.» Among their accusations, the employees charge that there have ben cases of clients being improperly discharged; an abor- tive attempt te «cover up» the sexuel assault of a female client by a maie resident; officiai docu- ments tam pered with, and pro- vincial health and' safety laws Ignored. "Sexual aseaulte, people expos- ing themselves. knives being ef Teen charged A Quebec teen waa charged with possession of the proceeds Of crime after police founid a ba containing $38,000 in the ~ of his car. Police stepped the youth, a 16-year-old Mohawk from the St. Regis reserve near Cornwall, ia routine traffic step at Thickson Road and Victeria Street around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The 1983 Pontiac lhad no back seat and the. officer discovered the. money in a snail bag in a corner of the trunk. An investigation is continuing. Officers suspect the teen had been transporting illegal cigarettes. Durham police and RCMP offi- cers have recentiy seized several loade of illegal cigarete in cars from the, Cornwall area. in open drawers, documents mis- sing ... this can't go on,» said Ryan. "Forget about the collective bargaining process, these homes are clearly not operating accord- ing to government regulations,» he said. Although a health ministry spokesperson told The Free Press the accusations are a "con- cern,» the ministry cannot set on the complaints until the Al Saints employees are prepared to talk «on the record» to, govern- ment officiais. All information the ministry has received to date has been of an anonymous» nature, Paul Kilbertus said in a prevlous interview. The ministry was alo eery of becoming involved in an employee-mployer dispute, Kil- bertus said. Union officiais, however, deny their dlaims are merely a bar- gingploy. Fears8 about possible reprisais from management once the strike is settled, have made employees hesistant about talk- ing "for the record," they say. "Idon't understand, do they (ministry) want the person who w;srpdt corne forward?» Were takng about people with limited resources who shouldn't be expected te corne down te Toronto. The ministry should go out and seS for them- selves»he said. Ryan, a Whîtby resident în- sists that a quick check ol the allegations would tell the minis- try that there are "ýmajor, major infractions of government poli- dies and procedures" at Al Saints. "It would clearly indicate that there's a trernen doua amount of truth in what's already been said,» h. claîmed. But Rý> an is upset with the province s apparent "reluctance te investigate the chre. "My problern with the govern- ment is that we contacted Drum- rnond Whites office and got no action,» ho said. nThe Ministry of Health wants 1pieteo on the record fh-et... I týotdon' t -undersitand it.» AlthughWhite acknowledged receivingte a«sensitive docu- ments,» h would not indicate if the union'a demand for a full inquiry in warranted. «don't know if their concerne are valid oe not, that's up to the rninistry,» he said. Nor was White preparod to admit that the material made even a 'Prima facie' case. for further scrutiny. "I can't comment on that ... I don't know enough about the individuai incidents,» he said. However, White said the employees took the. proper route tealring teir conoerns through te union, even though the wor- kers do not yet have the. protec- tion of a collective agreement. White "doubts very much" that the. employees. would suifer repercussions from Ail Saints' management for speaking out, especiaily "ini a situation that has been in a public format and brought te the attention of the member of parliament and government » he said. "They raieed the. issues through the union and did it prmoprk,» White added. Whity lawyer David Sims chief negotiator and secretary oý the. volunteer board that runs the agency, was not available for comment. But in a previous interview, Sims Iabelled the union's charges ab bagigtactic. :)%gs" dAil Saints was pre- paring a response te the 37-page union document. The Ail Saints' rebuttal will be sent to the health ministry even though it was not requested, Sime said. STRIKERS KAREN MEDCALF (left) and Luc Drouin had on. several layers of warm cbothin to withstand bitterIy cold temperatures while picketing Wednesday.Thirty-two unionzed mental heafth workers employed bytlIeéWhftby Ail Saints Residence Corp. walked out Jan. 18 after failing to reach agreement on a f irst contract. Poob u esr htyF rs Allegations of 'improprieties' Wt agency CHAMP has a lot of good things to give: Pfinancial assistance for artîtîcial lmtls; 4specially designed recreational imbs; p safety education; 4*computer training for children with multiple amputations; k a strong network of supportive counselling programs and regional seminars. Thanks to your support. GOOD THINGS DID 1-APPENI k4iS TheWamAmps National HeadqIuarters 782 / Rverside Drve Ortawa Orntari K IVOC4 Tel 1613) 1-I3821l(Ottawal of I1800-268 8821 Ctkiaib[eRegIisrahonNo 0286831 09 FROM PAGE 1 Afler being assured that they would not b. identifled, a group of Ail Saints' empioy.es dis- cussed their concerne with The Fr.. Pree. The five - three women and two men - perform different functions in the. three group homes. Stressing that they are not claiming that clients are mistrea- ted, the. workers directed their complainte against the. way Ail Sainte homes are manag.d. Ail Sainte runs 29 beds in ite three Whitby facilities through the. operatingnaine of Coîborne Residential Services. Four of the. beds are 'crisis bede' for persona not iii enough te be admitted te Whitby Psychi- atric Hospital or the. pschuatric ward at Oshawa General Hospi- tal. The remaining 25 beds are for long-term care. But according te tth. workers, tiiere are often people staying in the. homes who shouid not be tiiere and empioyees are some- times at a lose as te how te deal with them. «You don't know what's coming througii that door,»n said on. man. «W. deal with a lot of schizo- phrenic people, psychotics...if you can't react in a eplit second, you're dead » lh. said. "We've had sex assaulte tae place in there and were worri.d that somebody's goùig te die » on. woman said. In fact, the. workers say they have been warn.d by manage- ment te prepare for that even- tuaiity. «We're continualiy being desensitized and programmed te expect the worst," tiie woman added. Wiien probieme involving cliente occur management does its b.st te keep thie incidents quiet or te play down ite signifi- cance, they claim. «There'. a fear of caliing the police and tii. hospitai,» eaid on. woman. "People are kept here rather than go te the hospital because tiiey would los. the funding for the bed,» she said. Fear of involving outeide agen- cies is supported b y a sexual assauit that occurred in Decem- ber 1992, the workers dlaim. As one of the female empioyees recaiied, a woman who had been previousiy assaulted camne te stayat on. of the homes. "§he teid us that she iiad been sexuaiiy assauited at echool and had not reoeived counselling. We couid telli e had been victim- ize» 'said the woman. «ut within 48 hours she was sexualiy assaulted in our so- calied 'safe environmnent' by a maie resident because the night shift person had disappeared from hus post,» she sad. WhiLe the attacker was even- tually found guilty and senten- ced, the events leading up te hie arrest amounted te a «tremen- doue cover-up» of the incident, the worker said. "The. woman who was attacked teid us what happened. I did the report and it was altered,» se ad. Foiiowing a meeting with tiire management officiais, staff was advised that the. matter was not befgpuroued eW were ted there wouid be no more contact with the woman, that it could put the. agency in a bad position legally,» se said. Aftr the woman was dischar- ged, on. of the empioyees called an outeide açency and asked it te heip the victin. T7he other agency subsequently contacted the. victim's aunt and charges were laid, the, worker said. «Part of the procedure when someone leaves the. crisis centre i. that we make two foilow-up calis,» se.said. «But we were teld not te cali her. It was feit that it would put the ageng im jeopardy if we Meanwhiie, the. assailant cori- tinued te live in the. home for severai months. "H. remined in 'the home and app roached other women. Women feit extremely uncomfor- table with him there,» she said. Although they have their sus- pcosabout why hsan te mcdets are handled in this fashion by management, the employees declined te elaborate in detail. ~e bottem lin. is the. wor- kers feit better being out in the, cold, rather than in there,» said another woman. «W. got out for our own men- tal heatth,» she said. The workers feel that a «thorough investigation» of Al Saints is required. «They (ministry) have the documentation. They know what's needed te b. don.,» said on. man. He rejected the ministrys pSi- tion that the employees muet «go on the record» if action, if necess- ary,, ito betaken. Ti.worker said the 37-page report is the, second such doc- ment given te the government since sat November. «They (ministry sta ff) said they took ail the informatidu they needed and returned it » he said. «W. feit they were doing their job and would do something about it ... but nothing's hap- penéd.» As wae tth. case' with the second report, «again it was anonymous material," said health ministry spokesperson Paul Kilbertus. «We can't work on hearsay. We have te talk te people,» he said. iÀke ail governmIent-fumded boards and agencies, Ail Saints must submit an annu account- igof how it spends ite money, Kilbertue said. Ministry staff also insp hti facilities on a reular bsste ensure ail criteria are being met, he said. Kilb.rtus was not aware of any probleme. with Ail Saints' ope- rations. "If there hwaz, ir's neyerý been a major issue.» he said. 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