Nursing staff at evacuated Trumbull assisted living facility demands answers
Gloria Eye, a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph's says other members of the building's staff have been back inside working. It is only the nurses and nursing assistants who have not.
More Stories
Family members of residents and staff are still looking for answers more than two weeks after the Genesis Saint Joseph’s Center assisted living facility in Trumbull had to be evacuated in the middle of the night.
In the time since, state officials have confirmed to News 12 that the nearly 200 residents were evacuated after a water test came back positive for Legionella - the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease.
Residents have been relocated to other facilities, and the state says the St. Joseph's Center will not be reopened until it is fully sure that the situation is safe.
Staff members, however, say they need more information on when that will be.
"What they're doing to the employees is just wrong, they're not sticking by us," says Gloria Eye, a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph's.
Eye says she would get 32 hours a week of work before the evacuation but has only worked one day since then.
At the same time, she says other members of the building's staff have been back inside working. It is only the nurses and nursing assistants who have not.
Eye says they were told there would be shifts offered at other facilities, but those have been few and far between.
Sometimes, Eye says they have even been empty offers, with people driving to a promised shift only to be told "the facility didn't need us nurses, they would just tell them that they didn't need them and they'd be turned away."
Since they still technically work for St. Joseph's and hours have occasionally been offered, Eye says unemployment claims have all been rejected.
"We have families to support, and now we have no income," she explained. "We just want them to take responsibility for their employees," she said.
The nurses are in a union, but Eye says that has also mostly gone silent.
"We're just hoping to get answers of when things will turn around, like we're just left with the not knowing, so you know, it's hard, this is your home away from home," said Eye.
News 12 attempted to reach out to both administrators and Genesis, which runs the St. Joseph's Center, but has not heard back.
