Nurse was unfairly dismissed for making a lewd comment

In Bowater v North West London Hospitals NHS Trust [2011] EWCA Civ 63, Ms Bowater, a senior nurse, was helping her work colleagues to restrain a patient who was lying down on a bed. She sat astride on the patient’s ankles because she could not hold his ankles. The patient kicked Ms Bowater in her groin and lifted her so that she landed astride on his naked genitals.

While Ms Bowater sat astride on the patient’s naked genitals – she said: “It’s been a few months since I have been in this position with a man underneath me”.

Ms Bowater was dismissed for making a lewd comment.

The Court of Appeal held that Ms Bowater’s dismissal was unfair. Her dismissal was outside the range of reasonable responses open to a reasonable employer in the circumstances of the case [see paras.12 and 13].