Care home staff unfairly sacked

A nursing home operator was found to have unfairly dismissed two employees after finding that they had criminal convictions.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled the Offaly-based Cloverland Healthcare Ltd should pay Tracey Keogh €20,064 and Gabrielle Stynes €21,120.

Both women were out on maternity leave in 2012 when they were informed by the home operator that garda vetting had uncovered the previous convictions.

In the case of Ms Keogh, the operator contacted her to say her maternity leave would end on October 17, 2012, and asked her to attend a meeting the following day, when the firm sacked her.

Ms Keogh had worked as a care assistant at the home since 2004 and the tribunal stated “there were no issues with her work”.

The garda vetting revealed Ms Keogh “had a number of convictions” that predated her employment.

In the case of Ms Stynes, the tribunal stated that garda vetting uncovered two convictions, one in 1993 and one in 1998. The report gives no detail of the convictions in either case.

Ms Stynes, who worked as a laundry operator, was told of the garda vetting while out on maternity leave in March 2012 and was sacked when she returned to work in September 2012.

In its ruling, the tribunal found that the home operator erred in not carrying out a risk assessment to determine whether the two women could continue their employment in light of both the information raised by garda vetting and of their services with the firm — in the case of Ms Keogh, her long service to the firm.

Also in Ms Stynes’s case, the tribunal stated that her role as a laundry operative did not require contact with patients.