Union representatives to meet KPMG liquidators to discuss a fair redundancy package for St Monica’s workers

Union representatives have tonight (Tuesday, 11th August) confirmed that representatives from SIPTU, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Fórsa Trade Union representatives will meet with KPMG, the provisional liquidator of the St. Monica’s Nursing Home tomorrow (Wednesday, 12th August) in Dublin. SIPTU Health Organiser, Brian Condra, said: “It not acceptable that instead of engaging with union representatives, accepting an invitation to a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) conciliation conference, that the Sisters of Charity would rather walk away from their responsibilities, not pay our members a fair redundancy package and simply send in the liquidators. This is no way to treat staff who have provided years of outstanding service for residents, their families and our communities. Even now at the eleventh hour, we would call on the Sisters of Charity to do the right thing and meet with their staff as a matter of urgency.” INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Lorraine Monaghan, said: “The Sisters of Charity are sitting on substantial assets and have the means to pay a fair redundancy package to the loyal, committed staff in the St. Monica’s Nursing Home. We are calling on them to immediately engage with the unions and agree to release the necessary funds to ensure all staff receive a redundancy payment that the Labour Court has deemed fair and reasonable for this type of service.” Fórsa Assistant General Secretary, Seán McElhinney, said: “The residents of St Monica’s and their families have been quick to express support for the workforce, while the Sisters of Charity have remained silent. It might seem to some that the Sisters are hiding behind the bureaucracy of the liquidation, and having scant regard for the livelihoods that are being lost.” He added: “The residents, and their families, have seen, first hand, the care and compassion with which the workers of St Monica’s have discharged their duties for years. For those same workers to now be treated with such profound dispassion will be a great shame to the Sisters of Charity, if they decline to come forward and engage with the Unions.”