Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre has hired an outside company to wash hospital linen after industrial action by laundry employees led to shortages and delayed the movement of some patients to wards.

Director of Administration Danley Phillip said Thursday the hospital has also identified former laundry workers who could be temporarily reassigned and paid overtime to help maintain operations.

“We have outsourced the laundry for now,” Phillip said.

The contingency measures were introduced after the hospital reported running short of clean linen Wednesday. Phillip said some patients could not be transferred to wards because beds could not be properly prepared.

The dispute centres partly on laundry from the Sickle Cell Centre, which was recently relocated from the hospital. Laundry employees have argued that handling linen from the centre amounts to additional work.

Management disputes that position, saying the employees were already washing the same linen before the centre moved. Phillip said workers were asked to provide evidence that the relocation had substantially increased their workload but did not do so.

He accused employees of slowing laundry production as the dispute escalated.

Hospital management subsequently directed the employees to return to work, but the industrial action continued Thursday.

Phillip said disciplinary measures could follow if employees continue refusing to perform their duties.

“If this persists, we are going to have to officially suspend the laundry workers,” he said.

Maintenance employees have also joined the action. According to Phillip, they are seeking a salary increase of about 60%.

Workers have also raised concerns about COVID-19-related compensation. Phillip said management has no record of outstanding COVID-19 allowances that were formally approved for laundry or maintenance employees.

Hospital officials say the workers can continue pursuing their grievances through established industrial-relations procedures but must return to their duties while those issues are being addressed.

Management said its immediate priority is maintaining adequate hospital services and preventing further disruption to patient care.

This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre Outsources Laundry as Staff Protest Disrupts Patient Care.