Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Care Assistant

Nursing Home

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

CA-00027376-001

29/03/2019

The Complainant seeks a sanction of verbal warning to be expunged from his file.

An investigation into an allegation made against the Complainant by a resident in December 2018 of physical abuse cleared the Complainant of any such abuse. As a preventative and supportive measure it was suggested to the Complainant that he be accompanied by another staff member while carrying out his work. This proved to be difficult from an organisational point of view and it was left to the Complainant to organise. Following an incident in the breakfast room in late January 2019, the Complainant was subjected to an investigation and disciplinary process, culminating in a verbal warning on 18th February 2019 which was to remain on his file for 6 months.   It is submitted that the whole approach and process carried out was unfair.   The Complainant had been cleared of wrongdoing from the incident in December 2018. He voluntarily agreed to have another staff member accompany him on his duties. But it was not often possible as other staff were busy.         Yet he had then been disciplined for alleged failure to have staff members accompany him in his duties on dates in January 2019.

The complaint against the Complainant (from Resident 1) in December 2018 was not upheld. The outcome involved agreed supervision of the Complainant in that he would be accompanied when carrying out his duties.   In January 2018 an incident took place (Resident 2) which was considered out of character for the Resident.   The Resident subsequently informed the Director of Nursing that he did not want the Complainant to provide care for him as he had been ‘rough’ in his handling of him that morning.   Subsequently, the Complainant was found to have been standing outside the Resident’s room, which was considered potentially intimidatory on the Complainant’s part.   Following a process at which the Complainant was accompanied by his Union Rep, the Complainant was issued with an informal verbal warning which is to stand on his file for 6 months, expiring in August 2019. It is argued that in the broader context, the Respondent has a duty of care to the Residents and also to staff and it was for the Complainant’s own protection he was required to be accompanied. That he chose to ignore management’s request to abide by this proved detrimental and management had to impose the warning.

After the December incident, it appears that Management expected the Complainant to be accompanied at all times by another staff member. The fact that they did not put in place any formal assignments to fulfil this requirement led to some confusion and difficulties for the Complainant and doubtless his colleagues who were not aware of the reasons.  The reason given for the verbal warning in the more recent situation was “Alleged failure to follow reasonable management instructions, namely you have been instructed on 24-12-2018 to look after residents with assistance of another employee and you have allegedly failed to do so on 14th, 16th and 25th January 2019”. I note that the Complainant tried to give rational and reasonable explanations as to why he sometimes had to provide care unaccompanied. I therefore find the imposition of the penalty of informal verbal warning to have been harsh. In the circumstances I recommend that it be expunged from his file.    

I note that in a recent positive step, in June 2019 management informed the Complainant that he is no longer required to be accompanied while carrying out his duties.     The matter should now be closed and a line drawn under this dispute where the Complainant can return to normal duties.

Informal verbal warning.