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ARCHIVED - Murcia company ordered to rehire electrician sacked for drinking on the job
The Murcia employee was spotted guzzling beer, wine and spirits during the course of his working day
The Spanish courts have ordered a firm in Murcia to rehire an employee who was sacked for drinking a copious amount of alcohol during the working day or pay him a substantial settlement. According to the official reports, the company failed to prove that the fired electrician was “inebriated, intoxicated or drunk”.
The staff member had worked for the business for 27 years before being handed his marching papers in September 2021 when a private investigator spotted him drinking beer and spirits on several occasions while on the clock.
Now though, the Murcia High Court has said that he must be given his job back, or paid 47,000 euros in compensation, since the company couldn’t prove his drinking impacted his job.
According to the letter of dismissal, the electrician had been snapped on July 5, a working day, stopping for a quick beverage at 8.27am and around lunch time he and a colleague bought a light meal, four cans of San Miguel beer and a litre bottle of Estrella de Levante. But his antics didn’t stop there. The investigator reported that the worker had another beer later that afternoon and a second shortly before returning to the Murcia company’s headquarters at 6.30pm.
The thirsty work continued a couple of weeks later when the same employee downed seven litres of beer with two colleagues on their lunch break and topped this off with several more cans of Heineken throughout the afternoon. Less than a week later he was caught sipping on more beer, three glasses of red wine and an aperitif of brandy.
The dismissal letter specified that the electrician was being fired for “repeated and excessive alcohol consumption during the working day, which endangered his physical wellbeing and that of his workmates.”
The court, however, disagreed, and found that the company could offer no proof that the alcohol consumption had diminished “his physical and mental faculties,” or that he “was impeded when he drove the company van at the end of the working day.”
Furthermore, the judge pointed out that “at no time did the private detective make mentions of signs of inebriation or clumsiness when it came to walking.”
The court added: “Another factor to be borne in mind is that this relates to the month of July in Murcia and Cartagena, where the climatic conditions and the geographical habits should be considered.”
In other news: Electric scooter rental service arrives in Murcia
Image: Pixabay
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