Care worker fired for misconduct awarded €8,000 in compensation

A care worker was yesterday awarded €8,000 in compensation by an industrial tribunal that ruled he was not given the opportunity to defend himself against allegations of misconduct.

Justin Spiteri was taken on as a care worker at Mater Dei Hospital within the company Support Services Ltd in February 2009. About eight months into the job, he was told to go on unpaid leave.

Three weeks later his lawyer sent a letter to the company but there was no reply. Soon afterwards he was told he had lost his job and the termination would apply retroactively to include the time he had spent on unpaid leave.

Taking the witness stand, the manager of nursing services Salvina Bonanno said she had received complaints about Mr Spiteri’s behaviour and had reported them to supervisor Jackie Ebejer, who said she would speak to him.

The complaints were about patient safety and more specifically, the way he handled patients on wheelchairs and transferred them to the bed or armchair, Ms Bonanno said.

Human resources manager Phillip Bonnici said he had stopped Mr Spiteri from working to investigate the allegations. He informed Mr Spiteri and his father, Michael, a night manager at the hospital, about the allegations and they said they knew nothing about them.

He asked Ms Bonanno for a detailed report about the allegations but only received the report some three months after the man was dismissed.

The chairman of the tribunal, Antoine DeGiovanni, said Mr Spiteri had not been given the chance to defend himself against the allegations and awarded him €8,000 in compensation.