Sacked Guinness Employees Promised Free Beer

L O N D O N, June 1, 2001 -- Ireland's most popular brewery is making it easy for 140 fired workers to drown their sorrows: It's giving them 10 years of free beer as part of an innovative severance package.

Workers made redundant at Guinness' Dundalk plant will receive 14 bottles of premium beer — Guinness, Budweiser, Harp, or Heineken — every week for the next decade, the company said.

Free beer is a regular perk for Guinness employees, who receive four cases, or 96 cans, every three months, and special beer baskets at Christmas and during the summer. There's even a free bar at work.

Guinness spokesman Pat Barry says beer is a fairly common employment benefit in Ireland — particularly in the liquor business — and it is not uncommon for free booze to be part of a severance package. But, Barry explains, Guinness has taken strides to provide its laid-off workers with an unusually generous package.

The Dundalk plant is the first Guinness has ever closed, and Barry said the company wanted to ensure that the departing employees as well as the community at large maintained a positive image of the brewer.

Although it's unlikely many Guinness workers will object to the free suds, the 140 employees let go will not be expected to survive on beer alone. Their compensation packages will also include generous sums of cash, free private health care, and scholarships for children.

Workers at the Dundalk plant voted about 4-1 for the plan, which will provide sacked employees with between $40,000 and $147,000. The vote came after 1,200 Guinness employees walked-out of negotiations and held a one-day strike last month, halting beer production for a day.