When assessing this situation from a legal perspective, it is important to distinguish two things – what the employee does during the lunch break and the condition in which they return to work.
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First of all, it should be emphasized that the popular belief that the lunch break is working time is not correct. The Labor Code classifies it as rest time – the lunch break is intended for rest and eating, during which the employee may leave the workplace. Therefore, the fact that an employee drinks beer, for example, in a restaurant during the lunch break does not in itself mean that they are consuming alcohol during working hours.
However, such a problem may arise after lunch is over and employees return to work if the legal limit for ethyl alcohol concentration allowed for them is 0.2 per mille. A slightly higher limit – 0.4 per mille – is allowed when alcohol is consumed according to protocol requirements or its consumption is related to a production, technological, or other process according to the employer’s established requirements.
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Therefore, there is no universal answer that “one small beer” during lunch is definitely allowed. The law does not specify a “safe” number of beers consumed. The alcohol concentration in the body depends on various individual circumstances. The employee should be concerned that upon returning to work, the permissible alcohol concentration applicable to them is not exceeded. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the internal rules in force at the workplace, as the employer may have set even stricter, zero-tolerance requirements regarding alcohol consumption.
Thus, the practical answer for an office employee would be this: the lunch break is rest time, not working time, but a glass of beer during lunch is not permission to return to work intoxicated. It is necessary to assess not the number of glasses, but whether the employee meets the statutory or employer-established sobriety requirements upon returning to work.
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