Labour Court affirms finding against David Hogan in penalisation appeal

The Labour Court rejected David Hogan’s appeal and affirmed the finding that his penalisation complaint against Covidien Ireland Limited was not well founded. The determination was dated 9 July 2018. Hogan had refused an instruction to carry out screening checks on two production lines at once because he believed the practice created product-quality issues. He later completed the task and wrote to his supervisor. Covidien began a disciplinary process after his refusal, resulting in a written warning. The Court found his letter concerned product quality, not safety, health or welfare at work, so it did not consider whether he had been penalised.