Jia Qi Yan has won her unfair dismissal claim against Spotless Facility Services Pty Ltd T/A Spotless. The matter was heard over four days. Brendan Edghill, Senior Industrial Officer from the Health Services Union NSW and Mr David Bray, NSW Manager – Workplace Relations at the Australian Industry Group, were granted leave to appear pursuant to s.596(2)(a) of the Act. In January 2016, Spotless commenced providing catering and other services to the Rehabilitation and Disability Support Network operating the Royal Rehab facility at Morrison Road in Ryde, Sydney. Ms Yan commenced employment as a Personal Food Assistant for Royal Rehab on 3 March 1998. She injured her elbow whilst at work, she continued to perform her full range of duties until November 2015, when some restrictions were placed on the duties she could perform. She was subsequently stood down and directed to undertake a ‘functionality assessment’ by a physiotherapist. She was subsequently, after an assessment meeting dismissed by letter. Fair Work has issued an order for reinstatement with continuity of service together with an amount of twelve weeks’ salary.
March 2, 2017
Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd is facing a s.372 (Application to deal with other contravention disputes) before Commissioner Booth in Conference Room A in Brisbane at 10am (Bernasconi).
March 2, 2017
A woman who tripped while climbing stairs at a regional Queensland hospital has been awarded $1.6 million in damages for her injuries. Amelia Anne Covey, who worked as a physiotherapist at the Charters Towers Hospital in the state’s north, suffered neck and arm injuries during the fall in May 2010. Two engineers told the Supreme Court in Townsville the vertical gaps between steps on the staircase were inconsistent and outside tolerances allowed in the building code. They said her stumble was consistent with what could happen when heights of staircase risers varied too much. Ms Covey, now 34, said she continued to suffer regular pain and headaches since the fall. She had been climbing up the staircase when she tripped.
March 2, 2017
A s.189 (Arrangement for conduct of an election) lodged by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has been approved by Mr Enright in Melbourne on the 28 February 2017.
March 2, 2017
The only doctor in a rural town in Western Australia’s Mid West has warned of a risk to residents’ health after repeated outages caused her to discard vaccines and medication. Residents of Mullewa, an inland town almost 500 kilometres north-east of Perth, have experienced seven extensive outages since November. The longest, according to Western Power, lasted 14 hours. Representatives of Western Power and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services this week met with about 100 members of the Mullewa community.
March 2, 2017
A s.185 (Enterprise agreement) application by St Vincent’s Health Australia for its St Vincent’s Health Australia (Queensland Private Hospitals) Allied Health Employees Enterprise Agreement 2015 has been approved by Commissioner Johns in Sydney on 1 March 2017.
March 1, 2017
It took 30 pages of judgment from Fair Work deputy president Kovacic to finally determine Andrew Powell was not unfairly dismissed by Calvary Health Care ACT Ltd T/A Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. Mr Powell gave evidence together with his wife, Ms Mandy Powell who is employed by Calvary, Ms Linda Krisenthal, an employee of Calvary, Ms Soo Leng Davis, an employee of the Australian National University who works at its Calvary Campus two days each week, and Ms Helen Lee, a former colleague of Mr Powell. Ms Karen Edwards the Chief Executive Officer, Ms Charmaine Hacker, a former employee of Calvary and the person who lodged the complaint against Mr Powell, Ms Alison Easton of Silver Sands Consulting, Ms Nicole Vaivads a former employee of Calvary, and Ms Michelle Vella, who works at Calvary in a human resources role, all gave evidence for Calvary. Mr Powell was employed in an administrative role at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce in the ACT. On 26 May 2016 Mr Powell was suspended without pay as a result of a formal complaint made by Ms Hacker. The suspension letter issued to Mr Powell stated, among other things, that: “This letter is to confirm that you are immediately suspended from all duties without pay while Calvary conducts an investigation into allegations of serious misconduct which have made against you by another member of staff. These allegations if substantiated, represent breach of the Calvary Code of Conduct and Section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994. The specific allegations [sic] against you is that on Thursday, 19 May 2016, you physically assaulted a female member of staff.” In broad terms, Ms Hacker alleged that on 19 May 2016 Mr Powell assaulted her by forcefully grabbing her by the arm and subsequently placing his hands on her hips and propositioning her by suggesting that they “catch up” on the weekend. The alleged assault occurred in an area which was undergoing renovation and was therefore not occupied, meaning there were no witnesses to the alleged incident.
March 1, 2017
Surgeries were delayed at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide on Monday after a “faulty switch” disrupted the power supply.
