Author: E tū

The children of the security guard assaulted and seriously injured at Waikato Hospital have criticised Allied Security and the Waikato District Health Board for failing to keep her safe.

The guard suffered a broken arm and required surgery for multiple facial fractures after the assault.

“It was a pretty big shock. I didn’t know what to say to be honest,” says her son, Carl Harney.

“There are a lot of questions. She should have been safe, but she wasn’t. There should have been a lot more safety measures.”

Her daughter, Tajuana (pron. Tay-jana) Eltringham says when she saw the state of her mother after the assault, she fled from the ward.

“I burst into tears and walked out, it was a massive shock seeing my mum like that,” she says.

Harder still was telling her two younger siblings, aged 7 and 9, what had happened to their mum.

“I had to explain why she wasn’t coming home and why they couldn’t see her – the bruising and stuff – I couldn’t let two young kids see her that way,” says Tajuana. 

Both Carl and Tajuana say their mother had several close calls before the assault.

“There are a lot of the guards, not just my mum, who say they’re not safe. That guy shouldn’t have been on that ward,” says Carl.

“There are a lot of people you could blame, the person who did it obviously, but then Allied and the DHB after that.”

“Allied are useless,” says Tajuana. “They don’t look after their staff. They never have.”

Carl Harney is also angry about a media muzzle imposed by Allied on its security guards, which means his mother can’t speak for herself.

“I’m pretty pissed off about it,” says Carl. “I think everyone should have that right to talk, she should have that right.”

He says his mother loves her job at Waikato Hospital: “She loves the people she works with and she loves working at the hospital.”

But Carl and Tajuana were very concerned about her extremely long hours.  Both say their mother was constantly “harassed” to work during her time off.

“She got called in on every single day off. Mum is never home. She gets harassed even when she’s told them she’s not available to work. The big bosses – they don’t understand. They just think, ‘Yeah, you can work’.

“The fact the guards are underpaid and under-staffed is the other thing because you have to work those hours because of the low wages.”

Meanwhile, he says his mother is “up and down. She’s pretty tired most of the time. She’s pretty much lost her independence.”

E tū senior organiser, Iriaka Rauhihi says Allied Security’s media ban is preventing guards from speaking up about important health and safety issues.

“They should have the right to voice their legitimate concerns about this, but they don’t,” she says. “How can health and safety be improved with a culture of muzzling those on the front line?

“All Allied guards have been told not to speak to media – they know that means they could lose their jobs if they do.”

ENDS

To speak with Carl Harney or Tajuana Eltringham, please contact Karen Gregory-Hunt, ph. 022 269 1170.

Iriaka Rauhihi Senior E tū organiser ph. 027 544 8697

E tū says the serious assault on a security guard at Waikato Hospital this week is the tip of the iceberg and it’s time to end the use of security contractors who don’t provide adequate training, support and safe staffing.

Today, our injured member is out of the hospital’s High Dependency Unit but has severe injuries and faces a long recovery.

E tū Industry Coordinator, Sam Jones says assault is a daily risk for hospital security guards who are routinely understaffed and frequently poorly trained.    

“Most guards are too afraid to speak publicly for fear of losing their jobs, but we know of at least six cases where security guards have suffered serious assaults in our hospitals,” says Sam.

“In one case a guard was knocked unconscious and wasn’t found for half an hour; another is still recovering months after an assault with a fire extinguisher and another was the target of a knife attack.”  

He says the DHBs are placing their faith in budget security firms, which are failing to keep workers safe.

“They have an obligation to provide a safe working environment. They might be saving money by using contractors, but our injured worker has paid a very high price for that.”

The Convenor of E tū’s Runanga, Sharryn Barton is a former security guard, who once worked at the secure unit at Henry Bennett, Waikato Hospital’s mental health unit.

She says wages and conditions for security guards are very poor, while training is sometimes non-existent, despite the risks.

“Most contractors are desperate to get the work, so they’ll overlook certain things to get the contract, and that puts the workers at risk,” she says.

“Many are Tangatawhenua, Pacific Islanders and other migrants and women – the easiest people to exploit because they’re desperate for the job.

“I think we need an investigation into the security industry including the practices and ethics of these contractors as well as the people who contract them, to make sure workers aren’t bearing unacceptable risks just to keep their jobs.”

Sharryn says the whole issue of procurement standards for services such as hospital security also needs to be investigated.

Sam says the union will also be pushing WorkSafe to designate security as a high-risk occupation – a view shared by the better security firms and the New Zealand Security Association.

ENDS

For more information, contact:

Sam Jones E tū Industry Coordinator ph. 027 544 8563

To contact Sharryn Barton please call Karen Gregory-Hunt ph. 022 269 1170.