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Drinking on the Job in Peru...Perfectly Legal!

This past winter a Peruvian court ruled that fired worker; Pablo Cayo should be given back his old janitorial job. Mr. Cayo was originally dismissed from his city job for being intoxicated while at work. Most responsible companies would dismiss an employee for drinking or being drunk at the workplace and would deduce that it is not sound practice to employee intoxicated workers as they pose a risk to the welfare of other employees as well as the general public.

Peru's judicial system, The Constitutional Tribunal has a different take. The Tribunal reversed the firing decision and ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job! Tribunal Judge Fernando Calle stated that "The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody."

Employers and safety officials in Peru have denounced the ruling. Celso Becerra, the administrative chief of Chorrillos, a suburb of Lima, Peru exclaimed "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?"

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