Man says Budweiser distributor fired him for drinking Coorsposted by: Dan Viens Web Producer
Created: 5/17/2005 2:39 PM MDT - Updated: 5/17/2005 2:39 PM MDT
DENVER (AP) - Ross Hopkins still likes to drink Bud, even after a brief tryst with a Coors beer cost him his job at a Budweiser distributor.
Hopkins, 41, is suing American Eagle Distributing Co., saying the company wrongly fired him for drinking Coors in a Greeley bar after hours two years ago.
"They flat-out told me `We're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?"' he said Tuesday. "I thought I could drink it, no problem."
Hopkins' lawsuit, filed in Weld County District Court in Greeley last year, seeks unspecified damages for lost wages and benefits. No trial date has been set.
Lawsuits like Hopkins' are increasingly rare because employers are taking steps to be less intrusive into employees' private lives, said Stamford, Conn., labor attorney Larry Peikes.
"(Companies) have bigger, more important things to monitor than what kind of beer their employees drink," he said. "I'm not sure even Coke and Pepsi have policies against employees drinking the competitors' products."
Peikes said if Hopkins can prove he was fired only for drinking a Coors, he is likely to win his lawsuit.
Jeff Bedingfield, an attorney for the distributor, declined to comment, saying, "American Eagle prefers not to try this case in the media."
Colorado law says workers cannot be fired for a legal activity while off duty and away from work. There are exceptions, such as when a worker's actions relate to an occupational requirement or create a conflict of interest.
In a court filing, American Eagle said Hopkins' termination "was necessary to avoid a conflict of interest with his responsibilities to American Eagle and/or the appearance of such a conflict of interest."
Hopkins said he had a good employment record and received quarterly bonuses. American Eagle's court filings deny that he "performed his duties at or above acceptable" levels but did not elaborate.
Hopkins, who was a warehouse supervisor for the distributor, said he was not wearing a uniform or representing American Eagle when he was at the bar with some co-workers.
He said he had ordered a Budweiser but a waitress brought Coors. He decided to drink it because he didn't want to wait.
The son-in-law of the distributor's majority shareholder also was at the bar, and offered twice to buy him a Budweiser, but Hopkins turned it down both times.
He was fired the following Monday.
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