A nursing home whistleblower in Maine claims she was fired for voicing concerns about her workplace. Now Karen Cormier will have her wrongful termination lawsuit heard in the state’s Supreme Court.
Cormier was fired from her job as a certified nursing assistant ( CNA) in 2012. She filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired from Pine Point, Genesis Healthcare assisted living facility for stating concerns about the reduction of CNA’s at the facility.
Genesis countered that she was terminated because she was abusive towards a resident in the facility. In an earlier trial, a Maine court ruled in favor of Genesis. However, the case is now being revisited.
From McKnight’s:
In an earlier trial, the Cumberland County Superior Court ruled in favor of Genesis, stating there wasn’t enough of a demonstrated relationship between Cormier’s complaints about staffing and her firing after the hitting incident.
In this week’s ruling, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said the evidence was sufficient enough to allow a jury to find whether Cormier’s complaints would be protected by the Whistleblower Protection Act, and if her firing was directly motivated by “retaliatory intent.”
Cormier’s case marks the fifth complaint of retaliation against a whistleblower at Pine Point; a sixth in pending with the Maine Human Rights Commission, the Portland Press Herald reports.
Cormier worked for Pine Point for 10 years before she was fired.
Photo by Joe Gratz via Flickr CC License
