Employer must pay $40,000 to nurse fired after workplace assault

A New Brunswick arbitrator has ordered the province’s francophone health authority Vitalité to pay $40,000 to a nurse who was fired after she fell victim to a workplace assault.

The incident happened on March 11, 2019. Natasha Poirier, a former nurse manager at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre was attacked by Bruce (Randy) Van Horlick, the husband of a patient, who wanted his wife moved to a quieter room.

Van Horlick pulled Poirier from her chair by her hair, punched her on the temple, threw her against a wall, twisted her arm and several fingers backward, according to a CBC report.

He also assaulted another nurse, Teresa Thibeault, who tried to intervene.

The attack lasted 11 minutes, according to the report.

Earlier this year, Saskatchewan started requiring employers in the province to let new hires know about the history of workplace violence in their workplace.

Accommodation to the ‘point of undue hardship’

Following the incident, Poirier was unable to return to her job. At that time, Poirier was receiving benefits through a WorkSafeNB claim while on medical leave. 

Vitalité covered an additional $4,000 of Poirier's expenses that weren't covered by WorkSafeNB before opting to stop the payments, the arbitration decision detailed, according to the CBC report.

In 2021, Poirier informed the employer that she wanted to return to work. The employer considered putting her in the employ of a vaccination clinic in a Dieppe arena, but WorkSafeNB recommended fewer than 10 hours per week and "no large clinics with many people".

Poirier said the clinic wasn't suitable because of the amount of people, lighting and other factors that would negatively affect her health. Following her discussion with both WorkSafeNB and her psychologist, they concluded that that type of clinic wasn't a good environment for her to work in.

Then, Daniel Arseneau, Vitalité's regional co-ordinator for health and safety, told other Vitalité staff that WorkSafeNB had advised to "cease efforts for the return" of Poirier as she wouldn't return to Vitalité "because this environment is causing harmful effects to her mental health,” according to the report.

Nathalie Nadeau-Plourde, Vitalité's director of employee experience, then emailed other staff asking, "I would like to know what the employer can legally do to terminate this employee?" She claimed that Poirier "refused both accommodations" proposed.

Arbitrator Michel Doucet, however, found no evidence that one of the options was ever presented to Poirier.

The New Brunswick Nurses Union claimed Vitalité didn't take steps to find other ways to accommodate her in public-service jobs outside the health network.

"In this case, the evidence submitted by the employer does not allow me to conclude that it made any attempt that could reasonably be interpreted as being an effort to accommodate to the point of undue hardship," Doucet wrote.

Vitalité has 30 days to pay Poirier.

Previously, a group of eight migrant workers from Mexico was awarded a total of more than $23,000 in lost compensation after they won a wrongful termination case they filed against their employer.