A-B loses hidden camera case; may rehire workers

Modern Brewery Age, July 11, 2005

AP--Beer maker Anheuser-Busch Cos. may have to reinstate several employees fired for using illegal drugs at work because the company used hidden cameras without informing the employees' union, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The brewer fired five workers in 1998 after hidden cameras showed them smoking marijuana in an area where employees sometimes take breaks at one of its St. Louis brewing facilities.

Four additional workers were suspended for leaving their work areas. Seven others, observed sleeping or urinating on the building's roof, had to sign "last-chance" agreements saying they could be fired from their posts for any further violation of company rules.

A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a finding that the brewer committed an unfair labor practice when it installed the cameras in 1998 before it conducted any bargaining with the union, Brewers and Maltsters, Local Union No. 6, as required under federal labor laws.

The decision by Judge Judith W. Rogers sends the case back to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. to determine what, if any, remedies the disciplined A-B employees are entitled to, including the possibility of reinstatement for those fired.

The NLRB had ruled that the employees were not entitled to reinstatement or back pay because Anheuser-Busch had good cause to discipline them. But the court held that the company would not have known about the misconduct without viewing the unlawful hidden-camera tapes.

Judge David B. Sentelle dissented, saying the employees could still be disciplined for misconduct, even if the cameras were unlawfully installed.

The NLRB has long allowed hidden cameras in the workplace as long as the company bargains with the union, though a company does not have to say where the cameras are placed.

Anheuser-Busch argued that the hidden cameras were a matter of internal security and that employees had no expectation of privacy in the elevator motors room and the rooftop, which were not designated as official break areas.

"The court affirmed the NLRB's authority to determine what is an appropriate remedy in this case," a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch said. "We trust that the National Labor Relations Board will again uphold the company's decisions on review."

A spokesman for the union did not return calls seeking comment.