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Engaging in "deeply personal" behaviour with a client amounted to s-xual misconduct, the Fair Work Commission has ruled, in rejecting an employee's unfair dismissal claim.
"The relationship between [the client] and [employee] was inappropriate. [The employee's] conduct crossed a line, which is intended to protect vulnerable people," Commissioner Adam Walkaden said.
Home Caring sacked the support worker in December last year, after concluding that she had breached the NDIS code of conduct and a client's care plan by engaging in any inappropriate, sexual, unsafe or unprofessional conduct.
Specifically, it found she had: engaged in flirtatious behaviour with the client; had inappropriate conversations with him both verbally and via text messages, including about "private areas of [her] body"; and shaved the hair on his face and pubic region...
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