Sir, – Further to a Workplace Relations Commission recommendation on sleepovers and the Organisation of Working Time Act, personal assistants are no longer permitted to work shifts lasting more than 12 hours.
The Organisation of Working Time Act derives from an EU directive aimed at protecting workers’ rights and protecting employees in the context of health and safety. This is a positive measure.
However, in the context of personal assistance and independent living, it has serious consequences for the lives of us people with impairment.
Personal assistants are funded by the HSE and managed by service users and service providers.
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This is done by way of service agreements within the framework of a budget determined by the level of support a particular individual with an impairment is deemed to need.
Recruitment and retention of staff have been made very difficult because of low wages. Many personal assistants prefer to work in blocks of hours.
Someone like me, who uses personal assistants, has a rota system, where people will work one week on and one week off (legal requirements for breaks are adhered to). Under this rota system, overnight stays are covered.
The starting rate of pay for a personal assistant before completion of training is €10 per hour. This rate then rises to €12.12 per hour, with time and a half on Sundays and bank holidays.
The increased possibility of working “premium” shifts with higher rates of pay and other HSE increments is a major reason why block shifts are preferred by a majority of personal assistants and service users.
The block shifts worked by personal assistants are beneficial to me as they provide security and continuity of support. This allows me to meet and plan my work deadlines and gives me the opportunity to maintain dignity, autonomy and self-determination, in all areas of my life. A 12-hour limit on shifts worked can prove very restrictive.
The directive may require people with impairments to employ extra personal assistants for shorter shifts.
With the legislation on overnight stays, personal assistants will get paid for eight hours of night shift. Effectively, these changes will have an impact on service agreements and personalised budgets for people with disabilities.
The directive is being implemented by the HSE. This will further increase the deficit of the HSE and impact on overstretched personal assistant services.
In preparatory stages, the HSE and relevant units were not clear in telling service providers that the decision was coming down the line from Europe.
As service users, we have not officially been informed of the changes and are unsure of any timeframe.
Service providers stress the importance of independent living, enshrining the concept in their mission statements and values, yet they are going to deliver on the new directive without clarity to service users.
The notion of independent living is supposedly reflected in legislative measures but there are no mechanisms in place to monitor or report commitment to independent living, particularly in relation to the pending National Disability Inclusion Strategy (2017-2020), being prepared by the Department of Justice and the National Disability Strategy Steering Group.
There are vague references in the strategy to living in the community, which is quite different to independent living.
Many of us with disabilities now recognise the encroachment of the regime of institutions into our homes.
We, as people with disability, are consumed with a sense of vulnerability that translates to an endless feeling of passivity.
The question or possibility of derogations has yet to be opened up. We all support workers’ rights but this directive means that many of us may have to return to congregated settings.
The directive will affect many thousands of people with impairments who want to live independently.
Pertinent questions need to be addressed by HSE and service providers.
Service users find ourselves in a very compromising position. Our relationship with service providers is one of fear and coercion. The lack of independent advocacy and brokerage in the area of managing personalised budgets or service agreements is all too evident. Choices and bodily integrity are piecemeal.
This directive comes from Europe. In Ireland in 2017 we have rights for gay people and recognition of Traveller ethnicity, but have we no legal framework to protect the rights of people with disabilities? From where I sit, Europe feels very far away. – Yours, etc,
ROSALEEN McDONAGH,
Dublin 2.