Della Lehmann has been refused consent by the Fair Work Commission to launch an appeal against Mary Mackillop Aged Care SA. Ms Lehmann was represented by Simon Blewett, Senior Legal Officer with United Voice. Ms Lehmann commenced her employment at MMAC as a Patient Care Attendant (PCA) in July 2014, on a casual basis. The employment was based at a regional residential care facility operated by MMAC. In April 2015, Ms Lehmann began working part-time in the same facility. In October 2015, Ms Lehmann received a first and final warning in relation to the alleged verbal abuse of a resident and failure to follow a reasonable instruction. That warning was disputed at the time and remains in conjecture. On 5 August 2016, Ms Lehmann was rostered to work in the “low care” unit. It is common ground that Ms Lehmann and a fellow PCA were attending to a resident who suffered from dementia and incontinence. It is also agreed that whilst Ms Lehmann was attending to the cleaning up of the resident, that resident became upset and denied that she needed cleaning. It is alleged by MMAC that Ms Lehmann’s actions and manner in cleaning up the resident were rough and inappropriate, that she failed to stop the activity in circumstances where that should have been done in order to de-escalate the situation. It is further alleged that Ms Lehmann “shoved” an open bag of faeces and toilet paper in the face of the resident. Ms Lehmann contends, in effect, that she attended to the resident, who was resisting being cleaned up due to her dementia, in an appropriate and usual manner and denies that a bag of faeces was placed anywhere near the resident’s face. Rather, Ms Lehmann contends that a sealed bag was shown to the resident to demonstrate that she had required cleaning up and that this was done by lifting the bag to about waste height and making reference to it. Ms Stacy Waterman, the PCA who also attended to the resident with Ms Lehmann reported the events of 5 August 2016 to the Nurse on duty. The matter was then escalated through to senior management and Human Resources. On 24 August 2016, after an investigation, MMAC advised Ms Lehmann that her employment was terminated on the basis that she had engaged in serious and wilful misconduct.”
