You can be drunk on the job in Peru

The Constitutional Tribunal of Peru (Peru’s top court) decided back in January of 2009 that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job.

It’s an extremely controversial decision and one, quite frankly, I do not support.

North American labour law would absolutely allow the firing of someone for being intoxicated at work.  There are, however, exceptions, where the company may be forced to send the employee into a rehabilitation program instead of merely dismissing them.

The reasoning of the court is interesting:

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.

I do understand why the court felt the need to help this man, but at the same time it is unacceptable to relax the workplace rules like this. 

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?"

[Source: Reuters]