Nursing home ordered to pay €30,000 to healthcare worker following sexual and racial abuse

Finding the Carechoice firm liable, the WRC said the firm has failed to establish that they took reasonably practicable steps to avoid harassment and as such is liable.

A nursing home operator has been ordered to pay €30,000 compensation to a healthcare assistant after she was cornered by a patient with dementia touching himself sexually and racially abused by a drunk patient.

At the Workplace Relations Commission, adjudicator David James Murphy found that Vanessa Rodrigues Linhan was subjected to “serious racial and sexual harassment which made her legitimately fear for her safety”.