12 Picket Nursing Home Conditions

With handwritten signs and a report detailing their complaints, a dozen nursing home workers picketed Wednesday outside the California Occupational Health & Safety Administration building in Ventura, demanding swift action on a series of allegations.

Members of the Service Employees International Union, which represents workers at Twin Pines Healthcare in Santa Paula, complained outside the Cal-OSHA office Wednesday that the nursing home fails to protect its patients by under-staffing the facility and forces workers to lift patients by themselves.

“We’re always short-staffed,” said Yesenia Sandoval, a 20-year-old worker at Twin Pines. “Patients don’t get the care they need.”

Sandoval said she has hurt her back on the job twice in the past two months because of heavy lifting and a lack of proper training. She said she works through the pain, in part at her managers’ request.

Officials at Twin Pines were not available for comment Wednesday. The home employs about 50 people to care for about 99 patients, workers said.

A complaint filed with Cal-OSHA last year prompted an investigation, but interviews with Twin Pines Healthcare officials were not conducted until Tuesday, a Cal-OSHA official said.

Cal-OSHA Regional Director Robert Garcia said an investigation is under way, and penalties would be assessed against Twin Pines if warranted.

But union representatives claimed they were illegally excluded from discussions held with nursing home administrators Tuesday.

Garcia said that during initial interviews, employers have the legal right to exclude workers from discussions with government inspectors. He added that the investigation would be completed before July.