French rail staff strike for right to drink on the job

French rail workers embarked on a 24-hour strike in defence of two signalmen suspended for swigging rum cocktails while operating a major signal box.

SNCF is investigating after video footage allegedly shows signalmen boozing on the job

The walk out – which took place on Wednesday on two main suburban lines departing from Paris Saint-Lazare – came about after a two-minute video allegedly showing two employees and other transport workers drinking alcohol while gorging on crêpes at the post in the west of Paris in February 2013.

In the clip filmed by an SNCF employee, the group joke about the potency of the drinks before one man can be heard saying he mistakenly directed a train towards a platform where another train was already standing, The Telegraph reported.

His colleague then replies how luckily someone spotted it in time, before the first man says how the rum is starting to go to his head.

Since the whistle blower published the video in June, six staff members have been disciplined following an internal investigation.

The two signalmen caught drinking were suspended for two days while four others were suspended for one day for not alerting management about the incident.

The CGT union (French labour union) condemned the sanctions taken against the boozing workers, describing it as “management repression” and argued the workers had only consumed the rum after it had been used in the frying pan to cook the crêpes, so it no longer contained alcohol.

However, the union did admit one employee had created a cocktail with neat rum but it was so spicy nobody was able to finish their drink.