State staff at St. Peter facilities protest working conditions, including port-a-potty

ST. PETER, MINN. — Employees at facilities for Minnesotans with some of the most challenging behavioral problems say state officials are failing to address workers' safety concerns.

At the Forensic Mental Health Program in St. Peter, the radios that are workers' “lifeline” in an emergency falter.

Nearby, new construction has forced Minnesota Sex Offender Program staff to use an outdoor port-a-potty or walk in freezing weather to another building’s restroom — leaving their unit down a person as they make the quarter-mile roundtrip.

And workers say it seems to take an extreme situation, like an employee being punched, before the Department of Human Services (DHS) takes any safety measures, such as adding a plexiglass barrier to protect those handing out medications.

“The disrespect that management has with us is crazy,” said Nick Mertz, a security counselor at the sex offender program. “They don’t care about us. You feel like you get kicked in the knees just because you know that you have no one behind you.”

A small group of unionized staff, many of whom have worked at the St. Peter facilities for about two decades, recently protested in the cold by the campus that houses the Forensic Mental Health Program for people with chronic, serious mental illness and the sex offender program.

Among the protesters’ signs, one read, “DHS: Danger OSHA violators at work.”

However, workers said filing complaints with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not led to changes.

DHS officials said they are committed to the safety of the roughly 1,350 workers on their St. Peter campus and act when concerns are raised.

“Staff are at the heart of everything we do to care for patients and clients on our campus in St. Peter. Their work is demanding and difficult,” DHS Health Systems CEO Marshall Smith said in a statement.

“We value their input and meet regularly with our labor unions to address staff concerns. We’re working in good faith to find solutions.”

Workers said many of the problems they’ve highlighted have been brewing for a long time.

DHS officials have said they would fix the radio troubles for years, and employees have filed OSHA complaints to no avail, said Cory Moon, a security counselor at the Forensic Mental Health Program.

The program, formerly known as the Minnesota Security Hospital, serves many patients who have been designated “mentally ill and dangerous.”

Its roughly 600 portable radios have had occasional transmission difficulties since the system was installed about seven years ago, DHS officials said. Outages are limited in scope, and the entire system has never gone down, they said.

The officials said they bring experts onsite quickly to address problems and that they have made upgrades and done testing to address performance issues.

If a worker loses contact with master control, the DHS said, they can still reach staff on their unit or use phones.

When there’s an incident, Moon said, he must be able to press a button on the radio he carries and let staff know where to rush to help.

He said seconds can make a difference in an emergency such as an assault, and there’s often not time to make a phone call if the radio transmission fails.

Moon said it’s especially problematic for overnight shifts when there may be just a couple of staff members working a unit.

Employees have also been asking for a barrier around the staff desk at the north campus of the Forensic Mental Health Program, he said. A year ago, a patient there beat another patient to death with an electric guitar, then jumped over the desk and started choking a staff member.

“Had they had that plastic barrier up, that could have been prevented,” Moon said of the staff assault. “But they still haven’t put anything up out there, and they haven’t changed anything since it happened.”

Security counselor Cassy Rydell said some worker compensation claims for post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from that incident have been denied.

There were also longstanding concerns about workers who give out medications to patients at window stations, said Holly Willie, a nurse at the program.

She said staff had asked management for about two years to install plexiglass windows at the stations, but it took an employee getting punched in the face last year before they made the change.

“We ask and we’re trying to be proactive, but we continuously get shut down. And a lot of times it is due to funding, and I understand, but … I want to go home to my family in one piece,” Willie said.

She said that over the years, the facility seems to be seeing people with increasingly dangerous behavior.

Developing relationships with patients in the program is important, she said, but that’s difficult when many nurses seem to be shifted every year or so. Since 2019, Willie said, she’s been moved to seven roles.

“They preach continuity of care,” she said. “Yet we’re constantly dealing with other places.”

The DHS said it changes nursing assignments based on what’s best for patients and their progress in treatment. Officials said changes are made in compliance with union contracts.

Violent assaults by patients are not new at the forensic facility. A decade ago, the DHS was fined the unusually large sum of $63,000 for failing to protect workers from such attacks.

However, OSHA data provided by the DHS shows that injuries resulting from patient aggression in the forensic services program have dropped from 61 in 2021 to 13 last year.

Such injuries are lower at the sex offender program, where there was an average of about three injuries annually over the past five years, and only one last year.

Members of various unions who work for the DHS raised other concerns at Friday’s protest in St. Peter, as contract negotiations are underway. They talked about problems with a pay adjustment rollout that resulted in some people being temporarily under- or overpaid; failures to make good on signing bonuses; labor contract violations, and their lack of access to human resources.

But outrage over the port-a-potty at the sex offender program was the last straw and compelled them to assemble all day in below-freezing weather, said Nick Weerts, a security counselor in the sex offender program and AFSCME Local 404 vice president.

The small group of workers held signs with messages to the DHS, including “North Campus safety!!” “Stop violating contract!!” and “Human resources??” They blared music and drew honks from some passersby.

The construction project that disrupted their normal use of staff restrooms started about a month ago and is expected to continue for 1½ years. Several employees described their available restroom options as insulting and potentially dangerous.

The port-a-potty was placed in the sex offender program courtyard and isn’t secure from clients, security counselor Steaed Doehring said, adding: “Staff safety wasn’t taken into consideration at all.”

The DHS said labor unions were told a temporary outdoor restroom would be necessary and agreed to the plan before construction started. The agency said the toilet is heated and can be locked, but staff said the heater and plastic latch are insufficient.

Employees recently discussed the issue with leadership. Paul Rodriguez, a director in the sex offender program, wrote in an email to union officials that the DHS will repurpose a client restroom for staff. But he said the change would require moving several clients to comply with restroom ratio licensing requirements, which will be disruptive to clients' treatment.

He said officials will make the moves in about a month.