Waiter fired for being drunk at work in San Sebastian Credit:lindasky76 / Shutterstock.com
Business owners across Spain are being handed a reminder of the country’s tough labour laws after a bar owner was ordered to pay €6,784 or reinstate a waiter who turned up drunk and walked out during a busy evening service
Waiter turned up drunk for evening shift
The waiter had worked at a bar in San Sebastian since July 2022, working split shifts that included an evening service from 8pm to midnight. On July 6, 2025, he arrived for work drunk. After his manager challenged him about his condition, the waiter said he would leave if he was considered unfit to work.
He changed his clothes and left, despite an attempt to stop him. His absence left colleagues short-handed during the dinner service. Management dismissed him a few days later, citing the incident as well as other alleged misconduct.
Colleague was left in tears
One of those incidents had happened just six days earlier. On June 30, the waiter hit a female colleague on the bottom with a cleaning cloth. The blow caused her enough pain to make her cry. He apologised, but she did not accept it. The company later included the incident in its reasons for dismissal and described it as sexual harassment.
Judges did not agree that sexual harassment had been proved, although they considered the behaviour inappropriate.
Court says dismissal went too far
A lower court initially backed the bar’s decision to dismiss him, however, the Basque Country’s High Court of Justice took a different view in September, finding that the employer had not proved the habitual drunkenness it had alleged.
One occasion of arriving drunk was not enough to establish a pattern, particularly as the waiter had no previous disciplinary sanctions during his roughly three years at the business.
Leaving his shift was also considered serious misconduct under the hospitality industry’s collective agreement in Gipuzkoa, but judges decided dismissal was too severe a punishment in the circumstances. The court therefore ruled that the dismissal was unfair.
Bar must choose between €6,784 or reinstatement
The business must now either reinstate the waiter and pay the wages he has lost, or pay him €6,784.39 in compensation.
The unusual case is a reminder that being fired and being found to have behaved badly are not necessarily the same thing under Spanish employment law. For the court, the issue was whether the employer had proved the allegations and whether dismissal was a proportionate response, not whether turning up drunk or hitting a colleague was acceptable.
