Member Article

You can't sack me, I'm drunk

Workers in Peru who turn up drunk in the morning cannot be fired, the country’s top court has ruled.

The Constitutional Tribunal made the historic ruling in the case of a caretaker in the district of Chorrillos. Pablo Cayo was given the sack for being intoxicated at work, but his employer has now been ordered to give him his job back.

Fernando Calle, one of the justices at the court, said that although Mr Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody.

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?”

However, Mr Calle said the court would not revise its decision.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .