After the scandal, the time of the scold. After the revelations of the investigative book The Gravediggers (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros), by Victor Castanet, the personnel of the Orpea group launched a call to strike this Tuesday, March 8. A rally is planned in front of the Orpea headquarters in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine) with the participation of Belgian and German unions, the statement said. At the heart of the demands: the working conditions, the remuneration and the well-being of the residents of nursing homes.
“What we are denouncing with this day is the lack of staff, the systematic use of fixed-term contracts, the low salaries“explains a union representative from an Orpea establishment in Yonne, which, according to her, leads to “generalized exhaustion, a burnt-out that is setting in”.
“A fight not to have a moral debt”
This elected CGT, who wishes to remain anonymous, is not surprised by the revelations of the book which accuses the Orpea group of having set up a “systemin order to optimize its profits at the expense of the well-being of the elderly. “This book highlights what we have been denouncing for years“, she confides, before adding, that it is a “institutional abuse“, the lack of resources and staff, which leads to untenable situations. Her role as staff representative allows her to reassure her colleagues who feel responsible after the explosion caused by Victor Castanet’s book. “Our job is to say no, they are not responsible for anything. We suffer a lot because we force people somewhere to be accomplices in spite of themselves in very unhealthy things, hence our fight to denounce this situation.“.
She tells us that the glaring lack of staff, which considerably increases the workload for caregivers: “Personally, I am all alone in a night Alzheimer unit of 16 residents. Upstairs, there are two employees for 80 residents. Knowing that there is no nursing staff at night, so we have to make a lot of emergency calls because the nursing assistants are very limited in their care. For example, if a resident falls and opens his arch, I, as a nursing assistant, cannot perform technical care, whereas if there was a nurse, she could sew it up immediately.“.