Woman fired from Pines, rights breached
(CNS): A Caymanian woman who was sacked from the Pines Retirement Home for being unvaccinated for COVID-19 and accused of killing a resident by infecting them with the SARS-CoV-2 virus has won a partial legal victory in the courts. The court found that the Labour Act is incompatible with the Bill of Rights because anyone working for a non-profit entity is currently excluded, under the law, from taking a case of unfair dismal to a Labour Tribunal.
Shellian Bush had worked at the Pines, a registered charity, for more than ten years when she was fired while she was isolating after contracting COVID-19 in November 2021. She had been testing for the virus on a weekly basis after the Pines management introduced a COVID-19 vaccination or testing regime for all staff members, given the vulnerability of the residents.
Bush had said she felt uncomfortable being vaccinated and the Pines offered no advice for those who were concerned about possible side effects. She also claimed she had religious beliefs that also made her reluctant to take the shots.
The court found that Bush had offered no evidence of religious discrimination but that she had been discriminated against on other grounds.
When a decision was made to change the staff contracts to introduce mandatory vaccines for all workers, they were given a month to either be vaccinated or leave. But Bush tested positive during that time, preventing her from getting vaccinated before the deadline, even if she had wanted to. She was sacked anyway.
The Pines said she had not complied with the requirement and also accused her of killing a patient as she had come to work the day before testing positive when she was unwell. However, the court found that there was no evidence to support such an accusation.
But the case largely centred on the fact that there is no clear road for any employee of a non-profit to find redress when they might have been unfairly dismissed. When the woman was fired, she was told by the Labour Tribunal that they could not help her because charities were excluded under the legislation.
As a result, she turned to the courts and brought a human rights challenge, claiming several breaches and infringements of her rights under the 2009 Constitution.
Justice Alistair Walters, who presided over the case, said that there was no indication in the parliamentary record, Hansard, why charities were excluded from the original labour law. This meant that Bush was treated differently from others in a similar situation, such as people not employeed by charitable organisations.
The court found that the woman had been discriminated against under section 16 of the Bill of Rights, and her rights to a fair trial under section 7 had been infringed. But the judge said that the only order the court could give was a declaration that the legislation was incompatible with the Constitution and to allow Bush to make an application in relation to damages.
See the full ruling for G155 of 2022 on the judicial website here.
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Category: Local News
Covid vaccines DID NOT stop you from contacting Covid 19, so my question, if she was vaccinated and contracted Covid would the risk be less?
When I open any CNS article (or its site) it wouldn’t show the current, real time articles and comments until I refresh the page. Doesn’t matter if I visited the site today or a week ago. I delete browsing history daily.
It only happens with CNS site.
CNS: I’ve added something that I think (hope) might help with this. I’d be grateful if you could give me an update in a week or.
Okay. Thanks
It won’t help. It’s been that way forever.
You have to open CNS.com in an incognito tab or clear your cookies to see current articles – either way, this points to the issue being how CNS.com is delivering cookies and then reading them from existing users.
Quite frankly, I’d prefer them with chocolate chips. 😛
CNS: Me too. I think it’s a caching issue on the server end. I’ve made an adjustment that will hopefully clear them periodically without having to do it manually. If not, I’ll do it manually regularly and see if that helps.
I also have to hit Refresh whenever I visit the site to see new comments on articles.
CNS: You mean that when you first visit the site, you can’t see the new comments and then have to refresh? The problem I have fixing this is that I don’t have a problem. So if I try something to see if it helps, I can’t see if it does or not. I’m now purging the cache regularly and would appreciate feedback.
It’s an excellent point. Why are non profits excluded from the labour law? Might have been trying to protect churches from discrimination cases. Anyway, it’s well past time to update the Labour Law
Why are churches?
You must be the same anti-God, pro-gay that brings this up in every comment despite it not having anything to do with the topic. I get that you are hurt or angry but I’m tired of your incessant whining.
I am not anti-God, I am against bigotry,injustice and religious brainwashing, if you can spot the difference. I am gay, correct, but hey, I have no idea who made that comment, definitely not me. Thanks for heads up though, I do share their sentiment.
Have a blessed day.
I own a business. If you don’t have a vaccine, you won’t work for me. Period. It’s not about your right, it’s about everyone else’s to be safe at work. It also represents an IQ test from my perspective, if your too dumb to vaccinated, your too dumb to work for me. End of discussion.
* you’re
This comment IS THE dumbest ever, like ever ever ever! My Gosh! And this person runs a business and has employees?
1:20 seems to think that he’s a law unto himself
How do you know it’s a “he”?
Doesn’t matter. But only she can talk like a petty tyrant
What does vaccine have to do with anything numb nuts business owner. I am double vaccinated and boosted and I have caught Covid 3 times, with the last time not being severe. So your fairy-tale story about the vaccine is simply that a fairy tale.
You remind me of that plumber fellow in London.
He had to eat humble pie too.
The certainty expressed by the Pines to accuse her of killing someone, my gosh. It sums up everything about the pandemic. Nobody knew much at all, but so many determined then and still do that they knew and know a lot.
The world has gone absolutely insane.
Where’s Kattina and the “anti-vaxxers few” on this one..Covid or not, why the hell would you go to work feeling unwell when you work in an old folks home where these people are so vulnerable?
She was lucky she didn’t die from covid. A friend of mine went to her death foolishly following these anti-vaxxers and actually put herself in a position to actually get it and ended up passing away trying to prove a point.
She is probably losing sleep because of my civil partnership, that is far more important.
How is possible to scientifically determine the patient caught covid-19 from interacting with this lady ? How can intent to kill be proven on Ms. Bush’s behalf even if she “infected” the pines resident, supposedly causing their death ?
This seems to be a instance of reaching for low hanging fruit. Instead of harassing hard working Caymanians, The Pines management should’ve displayed this type of determination in pursuing the over $300,000 reportedly stolen by ex manager Sue Nickelson in 2015. She fled back to the UK before answering to any charges and the case was ultimately dropped by the DPP without one cent being recovered, from her that is.
The money was repaid by her husband, if I recall. I believe that’s why it wasn’t pursued further (incorrectly, in my opinion). But the rich live by different rules than the rest of us.
@12:34 pm. Saying she is probably responsible for the death of an elderly person is grossly unfair. The tests were totally unreliable as were/are the vaccines so there is no way to know how the elderly patient got covid. She may have caught it from someone who was vaccinated or tested negative but was asymptomatic.
An absolute misstatement of fact on your part. Rapid testing is certainly not “totally unreliable,” particularly the quality of tests that were available here.
Sure, there’s a modicum of doubt to the potential source of infection, but this is why McKeeva loves a jury trial. The most straightforward, and likely correct, explanation is that she was symptomatic, attended work and was in contact and vicinity to the resident, subsequently tested positive (and would, at that time, have done a confirmatory PCR test that is extremely accurate). Any reasonable person can draw a straight line from A to B with this, even if it wouldn’t meet a legal threshold for culpability.
There is nothing grossly unfair about this assessment – it is more likely to be true than not, and in my general opinion persons feeling unwell (from any type of potentially communicable illness) should not be working with the elderly and infirm until recovered. It’s bad enough when people get their healthy coworkers sick, let alone when the people they expose to their germs are vulnerable.
Except that according to the article the judge found that there was no evidence to support such an accusation.
Not insufficient evidence. Not incomplete evidence. Not unreliable evidence. NO evidence. That means none and that it is more likely untrue. So yes, it is grossly unfair and disgusting I might add.
Where in the article did it say that?
“The Pines said she had not complied with the requirement and also accused her of killing a patient as she had come to work the day before testing positive when she was unwell. However, the court found that there was no evidence to support such an accusation.”
Apparently the judge listened to what the Pines said and wasn’t impressed.
Except going to work feeling unwell in the circumstances is gross negligence, and would likely cross the threshold of legal culpability.
Your reasoning could be applied to anything – drunk/careless driving for example.
gross negligence involves an EXTREME departure from the ordinary standard of care. Going to work sick is usual and customary.
So she knowingly went into a retirement home filled with vulnerable people during a pandemic, knowing she was sick, and not even having the good sense to take a covid test first. A resident died as a result. That sounds like good grounds to be removed from her job to me.
The court found there was no evidence for the allegation. Are you on your 7th booster by the way?
Everyone was wearing a face mask.
Who are the board of directors? Accusing Ms Bush of killing her patient is beyond outrageous. The vaccines did not stop the spread, the testing was unreliable and it was claimed that the virus could be spread asymptomatically.
In short, the patient could have caught the virus in multiple ways.
Yes. The patient could have caught the virus multiple ways, but every one of those ways involved someone with close contact bringing it into the Pines. If this worker was in there feeling unwell and with Covid, then it may well be then that is how the virus came in. Just sayin. Far from an outrageous conclusion.
Board needs to take a closer look into staff treatment there. Long hours with pay below minimum wage. If they are not subjected to labour law then where do staff turn if they are being treated poorly. Too many loopholes……
Still probably responsible for that death though. Who goes to work feeling unwell when you work with the elderly and infirm? Just saying.
Sadly, there is still no cure for ignorance.
Yup. Many of those poor saps that got jabbed suffer lots of problems including died suddenly syndrome.
The fact that the jab neither prevented one from contracting the virus nor from spreading the virus is now an admitted truth.
The saps that refused to get the jab showed their colours. Selfish and ignorant!
You still actually believe the lockdowns, mask wearing and jabs worked? If so, you’re willfully ignorant and more afraid of admitting you are wrong than living a truthful life.
Lots of people ignoring the latest science and admissions to keep their false belief and narrative alive. Let’s face it, you are brainwashed. Time to put your big boy and big girl pants on.
what are you talking about?
Talking truth. Stop drinking the Kool aid and learn to think critically.
There is. Proper education. Actual factual knowledge.