A nursing company was ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation to a former employee who had lost her job due to injuries sustained when she was assaulted by a patient’s relative.

Josette Cassar took her case to the Industrial Tribunal after the Malta Memorial District Nursing Association, MMDNA, terminated her employment as a State-registered nurse.

In November 2005, the nurse was violently assaulted in Siġġiewi by the relative of a patient she was seeing to. Her aggressor was arraigned.

Although a doctor had initially certified her as having suffered slight injuries, she subsequently suffered pain to her back and legs. She was forced to go on injury leave and returned to work in July 2006 after an orthopaedic surgeon certified her fit for work.

She had asked to be given light duties but none was available to her and she was given a company car and instructed to make the rounds like all other nurses.

However, her pain increased when she sat in the driver’s seat and, despite asking for it to be changed, the MMDNA did nothing and so she again went on injury leave.

A specialist declared she had suffered a 10 per cent disability as a result of the incident.

In March 2007, after a full year on injury leave, she was informed that her job was being terminated for health reasons. Evidence showed that Employment and Training Corporation documents indicated that her job had been terminated 10 days before she was actually informed about it.

Chaired by Harold Walls, the tribunal heard the MMDNA say that Ms Cassar’s job had been terminated because she was incapable of carrying out her duties.

The tribunal noted that this was an unfortunate case where an employee was injured after being beaten while on duty. The employer was in duty bound to help her as much as possible.

It said that, while it understood that no alternative duties could have been given to Ms Cassar due to certain limitations, it was not satisfied that the management had cooperated with its employee by offering a remedy to the problem with the car. As a result, it said, Ms Cassar had to struggle unnecessarily to carry out her duties.

The tribunal found that, had the problem been seen to, it would not have led to Ms Cassar’s termination.

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