The Insurance Corporation of B.C. has told employees they may not consume alcohol during lunch breaks. The company is calling the announcement merely a "clarification" of existing policies that prohibit staff from being drunk on the job. But the ban applies to all consumption of alcohol, even a single drink.
The directive has troubled some workers.
A spokesman for local 378 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees union had this to say: "We don’t want anyone to get blasted at lunch and go back to work — that’s deserving of discipline — but on a Friday afternoon some people might want to have a beer with lunch. We are concerned that this gives [the company] a bit too much arbitrary authority."
Zero-tolerance policies toward alcohol are not uncommon in industry. B.C. Hydro has a similar prohibition. Airlines and some public transit operators ban consumption of alcohol for several hours before coming to work.
Yet those cases are different. Anyone can see why a power company lineman or a pilot or a bus driver should abstain from drinking on the job. Even the smallest impairment could have disastrous consequences. The argument is less compelling when it comes to office workers.
