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- Ella Leach, 29, is suing her former employer for unfair dismissal
- 1,200 registered nurses have been fired for refusing vaccines
A passionate nurse is threatening legal action after she was sacked this week for refusing to get a Covid jab in 2021 – even though the mandate for healthcare workers was repealed in September 2023.
Ella Leach, 29, secretary of the Nurses Professional Association QLD, sued Queensland Health for her ‘unfair dismissal’ last weekend.
The seven-months pregnant mum-to-be is also demanding an apology from Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace for making ‘misleading’ comments about her case.
Ms Leach claims that by firing more than 1,200 nurses in a similar position, the state’s government is ‘just trying to prove a point’ in the middle of a health care worker shortage.
‘Terminating experienced nurses in a critical workforce shortage after keeping them in limbo for over two years, which to all appearances seems to be a power play… .I don’t think, passes the pub test,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘This is not about me. This is about thousands of healthcare workers prevented from working in their profession.’
Ella Leach, 29, is suing Children’s Health Queensland for her unfair dismissal last weekend. She was fired for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine despite mandates ending in September 2023
Ms Leach is also demanding an explanation from industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace, who she claims made ‘misleading’ comments about her termination
Ms Grace had said there had been ‘specific circumstances’ behind Ms Leach’s firing when she was asked about the decision to sack her.
According to Ms Leach however, the only allegation listed in her termination letter regarded her refusal to comply with the vaccine mandate.
‘Ms Grace has my permission to elaborate further about the ‘specific circumstances’ surrounding my case,’ she told the Courier Mail.
‘Considering another pregnant nurse was sacked from Queensland Health two days after myself, I know that this is not an isolated incident.’
The Minister had previously said that ‘there was more’ to Ms Leach’s case than met the eye, but that she was unable to disclose any extra details due to privacy concerns.
‘It’s very hard to comment on an individual case, but I think there’s more to this case in relation to this,’ Ms Grace said.
‘We are doing all that we can to attract health workers but quite clearly, when directions are given, we expect them to be followed.’
In a letter replying to the Minister, Ms Leach wrote that she had ‘relinquished any right to privacy’ and was ‘eager’ to hear the circumstances that Ms Grace was referring to.
‘I am yet to receive any further information … beyond what was espoused in my termination letter,’ Ms Leach wrote.
‘Otherwise, I would like to receive an apology from you for portraying my circumstances of dismissal as anything other than what they were – a pregnant Queensland Health nurse being dismissed for disobeying a Health Employment Directive that is no longer in force.’
Queensland’s hospital system has been plagued since the pandemic by long waiting times and ambulance ramping.
Ms Leach believes this is almost entirely due to a chronic lack of staffing.
‘Nurses are pushed to the point of burn out, women are unable to give birth in our rural facilities and forced to have caesarians far from home – and all exacerbated by the fact that we don’t have enough nurses and midwives in our healthcare facilities.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Grace’s office and Queensland Health for comment.
Ms Grace had alleged that there had been ‘specific circumstances’ behind the termination but Ms Leach said that it was solely because of her refusal to get vaccinated
Ms Leach has waived her privacy rights so that Ms Grace can elaborate on what the other circumstances surrounding her dismissal were
Ms Leach worked as a registered nurse for seven years and had experience in neurosurgical, neurology, orthopaedics, medical and oncology.
Prior to the pandemic she had never been subject to disciplinary processes or management intervention.
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Tuesday, Ms Leach said that the drama had taken her attention away from her pregnancy.
‘I should be focused on the joys of becoming a first time mum but it has been overshadowed by this whole process,’ she said.
Ms Leach appeared on Sky News Australia where she revealed that 50 other Queensland Health staff she knew had similarly lost their jobs even after the vaccine mandate was repealed
In September 2021 all Queensland Health staff working in facilities where healthcare was provided were told they must be vaccinated for Covid, however, this directive was repealed in September 2023 by new director-general Michael Walsh.
‘There’s no sensible reason why they would continue with this action,’ Ms Leach said.
‘We know that our hospitals are screaming out for staff. We’re seeing ambulances ramped outside hospitals, people dying in ambulances, our rural areas are suffering.’
Ms Leach said she was one of at least 50 staff she knew of that had been fired since September 25 last year.
Children’s Health Queensland said in a statement it is ‘unable to comment publicly on the employment situation, including disciplinary action, of individual staff’.
‘Employee disciplinary matters are handled on a case by case basis and governed by robust and equitable processes.’
In September 2021 Queensland Health staff were told they must get a Covid vaccination to keep their jobs but this directive was overturned two years later (file image)
Ms Leach said she was aware some staff had been told they could reapply for their old jobs.
‘In my role as the secretary I’ve seen hundreds of letters sent to staff about this matter.’
‘They say they’ve been looked at on a case by case basis but they are templated letters and they insert what you’ve written back to them and say ”even if we haven’t addressed your concern don’t think we haven’t taken it into account”,’ she claimed.
‘Then they just terminate you, it’s disgraceful’.
‘I’ve spoken to nurses who have lost their homes over this’.
In repealing the vaccine mandate, Mr Walsh said wide ranging advice had been submitted that informed the decision.
This included employee feedback, expert clinical advice, official immunisation advice, and a ‘human rights assessment’.
Similar vaccine mandates for health workers were lifted in NSW at the end of 2022 but the mandate still stands in Victoria.
From dailymail.co.uk
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