A seafood factory in Scotland’s Livingston has to pay £5,454.29 (Rs 5.5 lakh) compensation to a woman employee whom they had fired for drinking beer 9 hours before her shift started. In defence, the company cited that it had a ‘zero tolerance’ rule when it comes to alcohol.
Malgorzata Krolik’s shift used to start at 2 pm while she had three beers at 5 am. She had been working with the seafood factory for 11 years and the incident took place in August 2020.
After the matter reached a tribunal, judge Jude Shepherd noted, “Krolik was unfairly dismissed. There was no real difference between her drinking in the early hours before an afternoon shift than someone working a 9 am shift and having alcohol the night before. It was not reasonable for the respondent to conclude that the claimant posed a health and safety risk to herself or other employees on this basis without further investigation.”
