Staff at a Kingston retirement home are speaking out after they say several concerns have gone unanswered

Staff members at the Fairfield Manor East retirement home in Kingston are speaking out. They allege a number of issues have been plaguing their place of work for several months now, affecting them and the quality of care for residents. The allegations include pay cheques bouncing, unsafe work conditions and even complaints of rent increases for residents. Employee Rana Linden says she just started at the place two weeks ago, and claims she noticed something was wrong with the staff morale.

“I came here, and heard everyone around me so stressed out, I wanted to do something to help.”

Several workers spoke to us on condition of being anonymous, and allege the issues have been happening for a number of months. One of them even claimed workers are being forced to work in shifts as personal support workers, when they are not even properly trained for the role.

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“They don’t get taught how the day is going to go, what you’re supposed to do in the shift and they’re just expected to do it because we don’t have the staff.”

While on-site, staff pointed out several outstanding problems with the building, including a leaking roof, lack of air conditioning in parts of the building and even a hole in the building caused when a car slammed into it. These, among other issues, have remained unfixed according to staff. A number of workers told CKWS these problems have been ongoing, even showing us complaints they had forwarded to the labour board for problems with proper payment.

“We don’t get paid, he’ll issue said cheque, sometimes he’ll post-date it until either the weekend or that following Monday,” they said.

“That’s wrong, our mortgage payments are bouncing, our bills are piling up. This needs to stop.”

David Payne moved into the building nearly two years go. He says he noticed a decline in maintenance around the building and picked up the slack to help out.

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“There wasn’t much upkeep of the place, so I basically took over as a maintenance person,” Payne said.

The resident claims the worker quit for non-payment. “The owner didn’t have a maintenance person. The one they had, he quit, because he didn’t get his money after doing his jobs.”

Payne adds he also noticed a huge difference with the home, after the ownership changed hands.

“The place had just gone to the dogs, you could say; everything is just falling apart here. I find that residents aren’t happy.”

CKWS attempted to get a comment from the owner who refused to comment on camera. But he says the allegations are unfounded, and the problems are something that all buildings face.