Scissors wielder has unfair dismissal claim rejected

Monica Connolly worked as a care worker for the Western Trust between 1995 and October 2008 when she was dismissed by the health authority as a result of an incident on April 11, 2008.

She was charged with failing "in her responsibility as a Senior Care Assistant to provide a safe, high standard of care by failing to treat a resident with dignity and respect" by inappropriately waving "a pair of scissors in his face and threatened to cut out his tongue".

Ms Connolly said she had been merely sharing a joke with the patient.

She was further said to have described the incident in a joking manner when handing over to other staff the following day.

After being sacked Ms Connolly subsequently made a complaint of unfair dismissal between January 4 and January 8, 2010 at an Industrial Tribunal in Belfast.

Details of the proceedings of this tribunal hearing have now been published by the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal Northern Ireland.

Whilst the tribunal panel acknowledged that "the incident" marred an otherwise exemplary career - "from the evidence which we have seen and heard, we are satisfied that, throughout that period, the claimant was an efficient and diligent worker, doing a difficult and stressful (but very important) job, for relatively low pay" - it found the Western Trust was not acting unfairly in sacking her.

Ultimately the tribunal panel threw out Ms Connolly's unfair dismissal claim after careful consideration of the claimant's contention that she had been merely sharing a joke with the vulnerable patient "X."

"In our view, in deciding to dismiss the claimant for the alleged misconduct, the respondent did not step outside the range of reasonable responses," the tribunal heard.

"Accordingly, this dismissal was not 'unfair' in the sense in which the term 'unfair' is used in the context of Article 130(4) of the 1996 Order."