Carer sacked waiting in A&E on ‘worst day of life’

ACARE worker was sacked as she waited in hospital for a coronavirus diagnosis on the day her husband suffered a fatal heart attack.

The employee had worked at 365 Support in Southport for five years before being fired at a hearing which took place in her absence on March 12. Later on, her husband suffered a heart attack which would result in his death a few days later.

Union bosses reacted to the process with anger, claiming that the woman was unable to attend the hearing because of her symptoms, something which 365 Support says it was not made aware of.

According to 365 Support, which is based on Sussex Road, the employee had asked for the hearing to take place in her absence and bosses still made efforts to contact her during the hearing. The firm says that it was only made aware of that the woman’s illness was potentially linked to Covid19 well after the hearing.

They say she was sacked for a “serious matter” and had already received repeated warnings for similar occurances.

However, Unison says their member was not aware the hearing was likely to have ended in her dismissal and had not even been suspended from duty at the time she agreed for it to go ahead.

On top of the devastating loss of her husband, Unison officials say she is now also facing a months long wait to hear if she can overturn the decision – and will not receive any wage during that time.

According to Unison, while waiting in A&E she was informed by her managers that she had been dismissed after the hearing, which involved multiple staff and revolved around allegations around medical administration.

In a bitterly cruel blow, her husband, who had been told about the sacking before heading out to work, suffered a heart attack and died a few days later.

Her family has no income from the time of her sacking in March until the hearing is over, adding huge financial pressure to the grief being suffered.

The union has called for the company, which provides care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community, to rethink its decision and quickly arrange an appeal hearing and pay her until that takes place.

Unison Sefton branch secretary Glen Williams said: “While the country claps for our carers, heartless company bosses have chosen to sack a care worker without even giving her a chance to defend herself.

“To add insult to injury, 365 Support is now trying to postpone the appeal because of COVID-19, leaving her and her family with no income.

“Trigger-happy bosses have jumped the gun and made a terrible situation even worse.”

The union’s North West regional manager Kevin Lucas said: “This is a desperate case that’s made worse by the shocking way 365 Support has behaved. Sadly, this callous disregard for staff is commonplace in the social care sector. Care workers are on the front line of the fight against this pandemic and are rightly cherished for the work they do.

“Yet a care employee was sacked on the worst day of her life without a chance to defend herself – that’s plainly wrong.”

A spokesman for the company said that it was upset at how the matter was being portrayed by the union and that, as a small business, it could be “significantly damaged by misinformation”.

She said: “The staff member in question was dismissed from 365 Support on the 12th March 2020 for a serious matter where there were already warnings on her file for similar occurrences.

“The staff member e-mailed a short time before the hearing was due to take place asking for this hearing to go on her absence as she was recovering from a chest infection.

“May we point out that we have only been informed in the past few days that this was potentially for Covid-19 reasons, and would also like to emphasise the fast moving position of this virus and that at the time we would not have thought anything other than what we were told directly from the staff member.

“The Government advised for lockdown to take place on the 23rd March 2020, almost two weeks after the staff members dismissal.

“The staff member also expressed her wishes for the hearing to go ahead in her absence.

“At no point we were made aware that the reason behind her not attending the hearing was due to Covid-19 and she requested that this go ahead in her absence.”

“We made attempts to contact the staff member throughout the hearing and we were unable to do so.”

The company says it indirectly became aware of the death days later and “send our thoughts to the staff member and her family”

But, they explained, “this does not take away from the serious nature behind her dismissal”.

An appeal hearing is not being arranged and 365 Support says the woman’s pay will be backdated if successful.

The spokesman added: “We would like to reiterate that we send our thoughts to the staff member during a difficult time for her, however we have a regulatory responsibility that we must adhere to, and the serious nature behind her dismissal must be remembered when taking in to account the position that she was in supporting vulnerable people.