Thursday, January 15, 2009

Intoxicated Peruvians

This just seems like a bad idea:
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.

I can't tell who was more drunk on the job: the janitor or the justices.

(h/t Huffington Post)

5 comments:

Katie said...

If this were in the U.S. I would wonder if the ACLU were involved. Mind you, I'm a big fan of theirs. But this seems right up their alley. :-)

Seriously. That's a little wacky.

Matt F. said...

I might have to agree with the judges here. Not in general, but in this specific case. Now, if the dude were a truck driver, a surgeon, or an air traffic controller, I would obviously say that he should be fired. But I do most of my best cleaning drunk. I think to fire him they should have to make a case that his being drunk hurt his ability to do his job. Let's be honest, there are a lot of janitors and other menial workers in this country who do their job high. If they did drug tests in restaurants, I think I would be the only person on staff. So I think its kind of cool to let the guy have a couple of drinks while he mops, as long as he does a good job. I'm half kidding.

Anonymous said...

First, if you work as a Peruvian janitor, drink all you like at work. I mean, after all, you are a Peruvian janitor.

Second, if this happened in the US, every beltway pundit and half the journalists would be out of work.

Mahalo!

Doug said...

I think there's definitely a 'degree' issue here. Where does a little tipsy end and drunk begin? And as Matt and Darren pointed out, how sober do you need to be to mop? I have one of the few professions in the world where it's almost expected for us to drink on the job. There are those in my line of work who are known for, even celebrated for, how drunk they get before and during work. I'm not saying that's a good thing, and it probably does diminish their performance, but no one is calling for them to loose their jobs. For the record, I stick to one, MAYBE two beers while I'm working, if I drink at all.

Anonymous said...

There once was a lawyer who was disbarred from coming into court after a batchelor party the night before. . . still smelling a little of drink. . . ACLU was nowhere to be found.