Canadian Employment Law Today

Canadian Employment Law Today | 3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 Cases and Trends Jail nurse faced abuse, health and safety risk from manager Nurse and other employees at jail shocked at angry manager's breach of harassment policy, safety protocols By JEffrEy r. SMiTh A nurse at an Ontario jail is entitled to damages after a manager verbally abused her and risked her health and safety after breaching standard security procedure, the Ontario Grievance Settlement Board has ruled. Marsha Lefkowitz was a registered nurse at the Owen Sound, Ont., jail beginning in 2005. She was responsible for dealing with the health issues of inmates and develop- ing care plans for acute and chronic nursing care for inmates. For several years, Lefkowitz felt that an operational manager she worked with con- ducted himself inappropriately, including sexual behaviour which didn't have a place in the workplace. He also had a "violent tem- per" the led to verbal outbursts. Once a week, a doctor came to the jail for "doctor's parade," a process in which all in- mates with medical issues would be brought to the health care office by correctional of- ficers for the doctor to look at them. e se- nior nurse at the jail would prepare the list of inmates for the correctional officers and organize charts and equipment before the doctor arrived. On Nov. 18, 2010, Lefkowitz was the only nurse on duty so it was up to her to pre- pare for and assist with the doctor's parade. Shortly before the doctor's arrival, the oper- ational manager called her to an emergency in the inmate area. A young female inmate was found on her bed and difficult to rouse. Lefkowitz found the inmate's vital signs to be stable, but the inmate couldn't rouse her and correctional officers found a syringe with liquid in the area. An ambulance was called and the inmate taken to the hospital. When the doctor arrived, Lefkowitz up- dated the doctor on the situation. e phone rang in the health care office but Lefkowitz didn't answer as it was usual practice to pro- ceed with the doctor's parade without inter- ruption, including letting phone calls go to voice mail. While Lefkowitz was still reporting the incident to the doctor, a correctional officer came to the door and told her the operation- al manager wanted her to come and speak to the father of the inmate who had been sent to the hospital. Lefkowitz was unsure what to do because she normally didn't leave the doctor alone for the parade. e doctor told the correctional officer the father should be told to go to the hospital. Angry manager caused a scene According to Lefkowitz, the operational manager entered the health care office about one minute later looking red in the face and "ready to explode." He pointed his finger at Lefkowitz and screamed at her that when she was given an order she was to fol- low it. He asked her why she didn't answer the phone and told her he had brought the inmate's father who had important informa- tion. e doctor nodded and the man claim- ing to be the inmate's father quickly entered the room. e manager then closed the of- fice door. Lefkowitz and the doctor were shocked since the office door was usually left open with correctional officers stationed outside to ensure their safety and security. Lefkow- itz had also never seen a civilian allowed into this area of the jail, particularly one car- rying an attaché case as this man was, which wasn't normally allowed in the jail. e man was angry and said he was the inmate's guardian. He said he was angry about his daughter's care and the mental health system. Lefkowitz was frightened as she was worried there could be a gun or bomb in the case. ey were able to settle the man down and he described medications the inmate was supposed to be taking. e doctor told the man to go to the hospital and he agreed. Shortly after the man left, the manager came into the health care office and yelled at Lefkowitz again that when he issued an order he expected it to be followed. He then told her to report to his office following the doctor's parade. Lefkowitz and the doctor were in shock at this outburst, and as a result the doctor left and parade wasn't held that day. Lefkowitz went to the manager's office with a union representative and the manager began screaming at her again. She tried to explain that she couldn't leave the doctor's parade unless it was an emergency and she had con- fidentiality concerns with talking to the in- mate's guardian. e manager continued to scream and Lefkowitz left in tears. Lefkowitz spoke to the superintendent about the incident and wrote a report de- scribing the manager's "condescending and bullying rage," as well as her safety and secu- rity concerns over letting the man into the health care office. She asked about filing a complaint under the harassment policy but was told there had to be "three vexatious comments" for such a complaint. Lefkowitz heard nothing about her com- plaint for several days and was surprised to see the manager at work the following Mon- day. She asked two correctional officers who had been outside of the office during the incident to submit reports, and they agreed since they also felt the manager's behaviour had been inappropriate. Both officers re- ported they were shocked at the manager's outburst as well as the fact he brought a ci- vilian into the jail with an attaché case with- out proper screening, who he then left in the office with Lefkowitz and the doctor. As more time went by with no word, Lefkowitz became anxious at work and lost confidence in herself. She sought counsel- ling through the employee assistance pro- gram and began seeing a psychotherapist. Lefkowitz finally decided to file a griev- ance for harassment, claiming she was verbally assaulted by the operational man- ager and a member of the public who was allowed access to the jail by the same man- ager. She said this was a failure on the em- ployer's part to protect her under Ontario's workplace bullying and violence legislation, its workplace harassment policy, and occu- pational health and safety legislation. e Breach on page 7 » The nurse and the doctor were shocked at being left alone in the health care office with an unscreened member of the public. The nurse had never seen a civilian allowed into that area of the jail

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