Peru Rules OK to Drink on the Job
The Lima-based Reuters crew just filed this tipico Peru story about a strange court ruling.
A judge on Peru’s top court has ruled that companies cannot fire workers for being drunk on the job. The Peruvian government is fuming about the decision, which it says sets a dangerous precedent.
Oy vey! Only in Peru.
Here’s the entire news item:
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent.
The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work.
The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.
Calle said the court would not revise its decision, despite complaints from the government.
“It’s not a good idea to relax rules at workplaces,” said Labor Minister Jorge Villasante.
Celso Becerra, the administrative chief of Chorrillos, a suburb of Lima, denounced the ruling.
“We’ve fired four workers for showing up drunk, and two of them were drivers,” he said. “How can we allow a drunk to work who might run somebody over?”
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Dana Ford)
Barbara
I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.
2 Comments
Ward Welvaert
Gotta love Peru!
Anything in there to indicate whether the judge had been drinking? Perhaps he’s one of the defendant’s drinking buddies…
Miguel
That rule will soon be overturned given the fact that the employer’s interests are more important ;).
How irracional, probably the ones who decided to make this “OK” go drunk to work. Anyways, it has not shown up in the media yet. Just reuters. We’ll see what happens.