Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Wisconsin
City bans alcohol consumtion by tavern employees
I am a bar manager of a bar in WI. Our city council has just put a ban on all bartenders consuming alcohol on the job, and will fine them if they do. I find this to be insulting, as the owners and managers are more than capable of creating our own policies and enforcing them. I am inquiring if this is even legal to only target bar employees to random breathalizers by the police department? Shold they not have to go into every business to ensure that not one person in the city is drinking on the job? Are we being unfairly discriminated against because of our profession?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: City bans alcohol consumtion by tavern employees
The City Council's action is unfair, certainly. However, while I sympathize with your plight, there is probably not much that could be done legally to correct it.
In cases like this, the actions of the local government will be subject to what is called by the courts a "rational basis" level of scrutiny. If the ordinance can be found to be rationally related to the duty of the city to ensure that bartenders are alert enough to be capable of ensuring that pattrons of the bar are not overserved and that minors are not served, then the ordinance will probably be upheld.
I don't think a court challenge of the ordinance would have a high likelihood of success and the litigation process would be fairly expensive, requiring at least one, and probably more, appeals to higher courts.
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