Technician blamed when glucose monitors had to be scrapped wins €8,000 over ‘hasty’ firing

A technician sacked by a medical devices plant after his “tweaked” settings on a machine were blamed for the scrapping of $42,000 (€38,000) worth of insulin monitors has won two month’s salary for unfair dismissal but failed in a bid to get his job back.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found Seamus Sexton contributed “significantly” to his dismissal from Sanmina Ireland ULC in the wake of the July 2024 incident.

An adjudicator found the company had conducted an unfair disciplinary process, in part because it failed to properly examine the technician’s contention that he was under pressure to keep production running – a claim denied by the firm.

The company, which employs 440 making medical devices at a plant in Fermoy, Co Cork, submitted that problems were discovered with a July 2024 batch of under-the-skin monitoring devices used to measure blood sugar and insulin levels.

Nearly 14,677 of the implants in the bad batch had already been shipped – with compromised product worth $42,669.89 recalled from a customer and scrapped, it was submitted.

Two more batches still at the plant were also affected, the WRC was told.

The company traced the issue to pressure settings on a clamp used in a handling system on the production line for the monitors, the WRC was told.

Sexton confirmed he was responsible for the pressure changes when he was asked about them. He said in evidence that there was a “push” for more productivity at the plant in the year up to his dismissal.

He said that to deal with halts on the line, the technicians “tweaked” the machines without procedures being followed.

Cross-examining Sexton, James Cleary of business group Ibec, for the respondent, said that if technicians were operating outside regulatory standards it would have been impossible for Sanmina to pass audits.

Sexton said staff did not report the alleged practice to auditors because they “did not want to incriminate” their employer.

He called himself “the only fool that was caught”.

Cleary submitted that there had been a full review which found no other settings were changed on the machines.

Mr Sexton was dismissed for gross misconduct, defined by the firm as “negligently operating equipment, tools or other devices” on 6th August 2024, a sanction upheld on internal appeal, the WRC heard.

At the time of a hearing in December 2025, Mr Sexton said, he had not succeeded in finding new work, and sought reinstatement as a potential remedy. This was opposed by his former employer.

His representative, Human Resources consultant John Walsh, said the investigation and disciplinary process was “shoddy and unprofessional” and that his client was treated in an “inhumane” manner.

In a decision published this week by the WRC, adjudicator Patricia Owens found that Sanmina “did not conduct a fair process”, and ruled the dismissal unfair.

She awarded Mr Sexton €8,236, two months’ salary, for the breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

Sexton had “contributed significantly to his own dismissal” and made “minimal” efforts to find new work,” the adjudicator wrote.