Nursing aides to demand safe staffing law enforcement

NORWOOD — Nursing home workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1199 New Jersey were set to picket at Buckingham Care and Rehabilitation Center in Norwood as part of a nationwide day of action Wednesday, the union said.

The action will take place in more than a dozen states at 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to a news release from the union.

Workers at the rehabilitation center will demand action to "properly enforce" the state's safe staffing law for nursing homes, which set certified nursing aide to patient ratios, the union said. A recent NJ Advance Media investigation found that six in 10 nursing homes in the state do not meet the law's requirements.

As such, workers are demanding the state health department increase the number of inspectors, hold owners accountable when they break the law and freeze admissions to noncompliant institutions, the union said.

"We all fought hard for the staffing law in New Jersey," Pierre St. Honore, a certified nursing assistant at the rehabilitation center, said in the release. "And we need the Department of Health to hold nursing home administrators accountable to the law."

Patch reached out to Buckingham Care and Rehabilitation Center for comment.