A Fife production line worker who defied instructions and continued to do his job wrongly was not unfairly dismissed.
An employment tribunal in Dundee has ruled that the sacking of Brendan Park was “rather harsh” but was not outwith the band of reasonable responses available to Bosch Rexroth Ltd, of Viewfield Industrial Estate in Glenrothes.
Mr Park, of the town’s Auchmuty Road, worked on a production line that made the front cases for motors for the Bobcat Corporation in the United States.
The motors were for heavy earth-moving machinery all over the world, including mineral extraction in inaccessible locations. The Bobcat contract was extremely important to Bosch, which employs 3,600 people in Great Britain and 393 in Glenrothes, and product failure issues could have serious implications for the company.
Mr Park’s job involved carrying out a critical process in a specific way. This involved rotating the front cover of the product three complete turns in both directions under a four-tonne pressure press.
He was trained to do this but in January 2013 he was observed doing it wrong and was taken off the job. He admitted not doing the task properly and was put back on the production line but was seen to be still doing it wrong. He was removed from the line and told the matter would have to be reported to management for investigation and possible disciplinary action.
A total of 36 of Mr Park’s motors were checked and it was found that 21 had not been constructed properly. The company regarded his behaviour as gross misconduct and considered the level of indiscipline may lead to dismissal.
He was accused of not carrying out the correct rotations in the production process. He had nothing to say and gave no explanation why he followed incorrect procedure even after being warned.
Gross misconduct was proven and, despite Mr Park having no disciplinary record, he was dismissed.
He appealed on grounds including undue severity of penalty, not extreme misconduct and the presses not being maintained to the correct pressure, but was unsuccessful.
Tribunal chairman Ian McFatridge said Bosch Rexroth faced considerable market pressures and was entitled to insist that employees carried out key instructions to the letter, and failure to do to would be treated as gross misconduct.