Support worker’s firing for assault correct

A support worker fired after it was found she likely hit a person with disabilities, has failed in her latest appeal against the decision.

Jean Cowan has been in a battle with IDEA Services since it fired her in 2017. Her attempts to overturn this in the Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court have both failed.

She applied to take her case to the Court of Appeal, but she was declined leave to appeal this month.

She had 17 years’ experience at IDEA Services before the events that led to her dismissal.

Her job involved caring for people living in a residential housing unit, in a location that is suppressed, including one who was in his mid-60s with relatively high needs – referred to as Mr M in the judgment – and another man called Mr C.

Mr M said he heard a slapping noise come from Mr C’s room one morning while Cowan was in there.

A manager spoke to Mr C two days later, who said ‘‘Jean Cowan – bruise’’ while rubbing his thigh.

He said he had been hit.

The manager found no evidence of bruising, but Cowan was told about the allegation.

She said she was in the room, but denied hitting Mr C.

An investigation was conducted. In a re-enactment of the incident Mr M correctly identified a slap as the sound he heard.

The investigation also found Mr C was unusually settled the afternoon after the alleged assault, spoke all week about his leg being sore, and he had never accused anyone of hitting him before.

One staff member said she thought she saw a bruise a week after the incident, while Mr M said he heard Cowan tell Mr C to p... off.

Cowan also had a reputation for being short tempered and yelling at service users, while Mr C was known to easily wind people up.

Cowan agreed she could raise her voice, just like all staff, and that she had been grumpy in the past towards service users.

But she denied ever slapping Mr C.

A senior service manager who took care of the investigation found Cowan, on the balance of probabilities, had hit Mr C, and that there was a pattern of poor communication, behaviour and conduct towards people.

All those matters put together led to her being fired.

The Court of Appeal decision, written by Justice Christine French, noted Cowan’s lawyer essentially argued the investigation into the alleged assault was not good enough. But the appeal could only be heard if there was a serious question of law, which Cowan’s case did not present, French said.

Cowan was ordered to pay legal costs.