Disabilities hospital told to reinstate worker who slapped girl

A HOSPITAL for people with intellectual disabilities has been ordered to reinstate a worker it fired after he slapped a 12-year-old girl in a wheelchair.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal said Stewart’s Hospital Services in west Dublin had excessively punished care worker, John Taylor, of Moyglare Village, Maynooth, Co Kildare.

At teatime on July 4, 2006, Mr Taylor slapped the girl three times while two other workers watched — they subsequently reported the incident to management.

An investigation was carried out by the hospital in which Mr Taylor admitted slapping the girl and he was fired for gross misconduct.

He had been working at the hospital since 1981 and was about to complete an honour’s degree — he qualified as a staff nurse one day after he slapped the patient.

In his submission to the tribunal Mr Taylor said he “very much regretted the incident”.

The tribunal also heard that in 25 years there had never been a complaint made against him, he had represented his fellow workers as a shop steward for 12 years and he had been ill for four months before the incident.

“[Mr Taylor] said he never retracted the initial statement he had made about the incident. He had been unwell on the day, as he had been for the previous four months. He had been attending the doctor in the hospital,” the tribunal’s report said.

The report also said while the claimant accepted the hospital investigator’s report, he now claimed “slapping” was not an accurate word to describe what happened.

Mr Taylor found work after he was fired, but was let go one week later when his new employer heard about what happened at Stewart’s Hospital.

He later started working for a nursing agency and the tribunal said overall he had not suffered financially.

The legal team for Stewart’s Hospital said, while it accepted the case was “tragic” and “very unfortunate” it considered what happened to be very serious and it had addressed the investigation carefully. The team also said it had been difficult for Mr Taylor’s co-workers to report what happened and this had been stressful on them.

The tribunal said the hospital had carried out its investigation properly and it recognised the “exceptional duty of care” it had towards its patients.

However, it said Mr Taylor’s behaviour was not bad enough to justify his dismissal and it ordered the hospital to re-hire him.