MONTREAL - A suburban Montreal seniors' residence fired a nursing assistant who let a senior wash herself with a house-cleaning product last summer.

The assistant received her termination letter stating a series of complaints concerning poor client care in June 2011.

The woman unsuccessfully contested the termination decision.

"On June 20, 2011, you refused to partially bathe [a client] even though your work plan requires you do this task. You told her that she was able to take care of her hygiene herself and the client, who has cognitive problems, washed herself with Hertel. The result was damaging to her skin," the woman's termination letter said.

Other accusations included sleeping on the job, refusing to help a client get out of bed because it was too early and being snappy with clients. The assistant vigorously denied the allegations, saying she didn't know about the bottle of Hertel in the client's room, and swore she never fell asleep on the job.

On May 28, the workplace health and safety board upheld the termination decision after the nursing assistant contested it, stating her shortcomings had broken the trust of her employer, located in the Montreal suburb of Laval.