Monday, May 7, 2007

Saúde!- Brazilian beer tester receives compensation

Alcoholism would seem like an obvious occupational hazard to the job of beer taster. Yet one Brazilian man who held that position won a lawsuit against brewer Ambev after claming that the company did not have adequate health measures to avoid his alcoholism.

The court ordered Ambev to pay $49,000 to the defendant who used to drink over 1.5 liters of beer per day as part of his job.

Though lawyers for Ambev argued that the employee was an alcoholic to begin with, the judge on the case countered with the obvious:

“Judge Jose Felipe Ledur said the company still was negligent because an alcoholic should never have been made a beer taster.”

Image- Ambev (Brahma Bier, distributed by Ambev)

Links- BBC News, International Herald Tribune

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I cant believe the lawyers argued that the guy was an alchohic to begin with. That is the main reason in my mind why the guy won his compensation claim. the judge was totally right. you would have to be pretty stupid to hire an alchoholic as a beer taster