This Tuesday, June 24, marks a new episode of strikes at the Lenval Foundation. The objective: to protest against the measures taken by the management and to denounce the deterioration of working conditions
“Management, resign” echoes through the cries of protesters in front of the Lenval pediatric facility. It is the fifth time in just two months that the staff of the Lenval Foundation have taken to the streets to express their dissatisfaction and poor working conditions. An explosive situation originating from the caregivers’ grievances. And the potential consequences on children’s care.
The growing discomfort among staff
“There is a communal discomfort within the Lenval Foundation, affecting all employees. A deterioration of working conditions since our new governance arrived. This is compounded by many burnouts, because we are stressed, we are under pressure. I work in child psychiatry; we bear our patients’ psychological suffering and we don’t feel heard enough,” explains Sanae Zaoui, a psychomotor therapist at Lenval.
A young caregiver, who has been in the pediatric facility for several months, also testifies: “It’s a passion-driven profession, it’s what I love, but it hurts to see the state of everyone in the profession and here. It’s almost discouraging for us whereas our minds should be focused on the children, not these problems.”
A general fed-up feeling related to governance prevents any improvement. And employees are not being listened to. “Measures have been implemented without consultation with the staff, particularly the annualization of working hours and the installation of a time clock. And this annualization of working time caused us to lose RTT (reduction of working time) days for the affected services,” Sanae Zaoui added. The time clock is a machine installed to monitor employees’ working hours, an installation that added fuel to the fire.
A commitment undermined
A mental overload for all Lenval staff, which can have consequences, even indirect, on the children in the pediatric facility.
“We are committed to care, I am dedicated to this profession, I welcome children from zero to eighteen years old. To support a child, we also need to be supported by our hierarchy. And this situation weakens our psychological and physical availability toward the children. It does not directly impact the children, in the sense that we continue to care properly, with all the commitment it requires, but we are exhausted,” explains Sanae Zaoui.
“We inevitably have a preoccupied mind because of what is happening around the facility, and with the governance, it’s normal. And so, even if we continue to take care of the children as needed, we always have this issue on our minds. Indirectly, it can affect, so that’s why you should not take the claims lightly,” explains a 26-year-old caregiver.
The claims
In response to this uprising by the staff of the facility, employees are calling for a rollback of the implemented measures. This is what psychomotor therapist Sanae Zaoui is demanding. “We want a rollback concerning all the measures. We are against the annualization of working time, against the implementation of the time clock, which is intended to be rigid. While we have been granted thirty minutes of flexibility before and after, that is not what we are asking for.”
If the situation does not change, they promise: they will take to the streets of Lenval again to protest. Their signs remind us of the message: “this is not a fight, it’s a cry from the heart.”
