Healthcare assistant sacked for sharing video of residential care home
MELBOURNE: A healthcare assistant who was sacked by a nursing home here for posting a video of care home residents on Snapchat has been awarded €7,800 for her unfair dismissal.
The nursing home sacked the healthcare assistant on November 9, 2018 after receiving a complaint from an employee that the worker had posted a recording of residents at the nursing home on Snapchat accompanied by the caption “f**k my actual life”.
The nursing home dismissed the healthcare assistant for gross misconduct on the grounds of breaching the nursing home’s social media policy which “resulted in an irrevocable breach of trust and confidence”.
The woman sued for unfair dismissal at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and WRC Adjudication Officer, Andrew Heavey has found that that the healthcare assistant’s behaviour did not constitute gross misconduct and that her unfair dismissal complaint was well-founded.
Mr Heavey found that the decision to summarily dismiss her was not within the range of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer.
Mr Heavey did take into account the fact that the healthcare assistant contributed significantly to her dismissal and this is reflected in the level of compensation awarded.
Mr Heavey stated it is clear that the healthcare assistant regretted her actions in relation to the video, had realised her mistake and had expressed her apologies in that regard.
He stated:
“I also note that, unless it were saved by someone, the video would have had a very short lifespan before it was automatically deleted.”
