Woman who fired nanny over alleged assault ordered to pay her severance

Michelle Linklater said she's been ordered to pay her nanny severance pay after she allegedly assaulted her disabled daughter.

A Vanscoy mother is in a fight with the Ministry of Labour.

Michelle Linklater said she was ordered to pay severance to a nanny even though the nanny was charged with assaulting her disabled daughter.

The problem began last august, when Linklater heard a scream coming from her bedroom bathroom. She saw her nanny and her disabled daughter in the bathroom, and was horrified by what was going on.

“Her left hand was on my daughter’s head and the with the other hand she was ripping hair out of my daughter’s head. She was yanking it so hard my child’s head was bobbing,” Linklater said.

Linklater fired the nanny and called the police. The nanny was charged with assault, but the charge was stayed in court.

“My daughter, being that she is nonverbal, can’t speak. And I’m the only witness. They just didn’t feel that it was a strong enough case to be held in trial,” Linklater said.

Labour Standards investigated the incident and determined there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant a dismissal, and ordered Linklater to pay the nanny two weeks of severance. The fact that charges were laid isn’t enough to warrant a dismissal in these kind of cases.

“Laying the charge is not the key,” said Glen McRorie, director of compliance and investigations for the ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety. “It’s is there evidence that an employee stole money or something like that.

Linklater is appealing the decision. She showed CTV a copy of what she says is a text message confession from the nanny. The Ministry said she has the right to appeal to an independent adjudicator.

"There is a process of oversight in terms of our investigations and how we proceed and an opportunity for an employer to pursue that if they so choose,” McRorie said.

Linklater will appear before an adjudicator on October 1st for an appeal.