Labour Court says Galco Steel should have used disciplinary procedure after safety dispute

The Labour Court found that Galco Steel Limited should have used its disciplinary procedure before reducing two workers’ hours after they refused to work near a leaking roof above molten metal. The recommendation was signed on 15 March 2012. The two workers, represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, said they were willing to work elsewhere in the plant, but management rejected that option. Galco Steel argued they had refused a reasonable instruction after a temporary repair and that the claim had been delayed. The Court recommended that the agreed disciplinary procedure be used if a similar situation arose again. Because of the time that had passed and the difficulty of establishing what happened, it made no further recommendation.