Aged carers Shane Lyttle and Eddie Lee have their hopes set on intervention by Federal Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, in their conflict with IRT Group.
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Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis met them in Ulladulla on Saturday (February 20), promising she would today ask Mr Wyatt to meet them.
“Initially I tried to coordinate an interview with some more senior members of IRT, unfortunately without success,” Mrs Sudmalis told Fairfax Media.
Alarmed and surprised in early 2014 by IRT’s negative and punitive reaction to them highlighting a number of In-Home Care (IHC) work practices, the pair both acted against the company in the Fair Work Commission.
Mr Lee has also taken action in the Aged Care Commission.
Summarily sacked last November, Mr Lyttle then took action against IRT (Illawarra Retirement Trust) for unlawful dismissal.
A video called Good Death, published online on Vimeo, Facebook and ABC Open is one of a number of issues central to the face-off.
The Times approached an IRT manager to do a news story when the video was first released but she declined, saying there were problems.
An independent producer published Good Death.
However the IRT manager who supervised shooting sections of the video on IRT premises was one of two staff presenters dressed in IRT uniforms, when the production was not officially authorised by IRT.
IRT does not own the copyright.
Good Death also features, without her consent, an elderly IHC client in her home.
The Times has sighted a December 2014 letter in the client’s handwriting, witnessed by a friend, asking to have her appearance in the video removed from the web, and requesting that Shane Lyttle, then her IHC carer, be her advocate in the matter.
“When we became aware that the woman was not happy to appear in the video online, we requested on her behalf that ABC Open remove the video from the internet, however ABC Open refused to do so,” said an IRT spokesperson.
IHC is co-located with Sarah Claydon at Milton.
Ann Sudmalis has been working with and talking to Mr Lyttle and Mr Lee for some time: “I advised them to try and negotiate a compromise outcome, where they felt they had both protected the rights of an older citizen, yet also held their own integrity”.
“At any time this would be difficult, but as I understand the statements made to me, they were not able to have such conversations easily and at times they felt somewhat intimidated,” said Mrs Sudmalis.
Now she also recommends Lee and Lyttle each make submissions to the Inquiry into elder abuse in New South Wales (a public hearing opened in the NSW Parliament in November 2015), and to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into the future of Australia’s aged care sector workforce, closing March 4.
NSW South Coast MP Shelley Hancock, who strongly supports the pair, has branded IRT's written threat to discipline Mr Lee or immediately sack him for talking to the Times “an absolute disgrace”.
IRT now says “the actions we have taken to date with respect to Mr Lee's employment are the result of a range of ongoing matters”.
Fairfax Media has directly invited IRT chief executive Nieves Murray to respond to our coverage but she has deferred to corporate public relations.
“We stand by the rigorous process we have followed in relation to these matters, including an independent review that found we had acted appropriately,” is the official response.
Asked who did the review, the spokesperson said a workplace relations and industrial law specialist, but was not prepared to name the firm.
