Poles Drunk At Work

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31379, 26 May 1967, Page 11

Poles Drunk At Work

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WARSAW, May 25. Poles, who are used to periodic appeals to restrict their drinking of vodka, have been warned that at least drinking on the job will have to stop, the “New York Times” News Service reported. In many factories drinking bouts during working hours were seriously interfering with production, “Trybuna Ludu,” newspaper of the United Workers’ (Communist) Party said yesterday.

Workers frequently organised on-the-job parties that brought work to a standstill. The newspaper complained it was not right that the police should have to prevent drunkenness at work. It called on factory management unions and Communist Party cells to take over this function. Among the examples the newspaper cited were:— The party cell at a ceramics factory at Gorzow investigated vodka-drinking during working hours. It found that those who made the moulds were indeed drinking heavily but it reported, they were highly- specialised workers and hard to replace. They set

their own conditions. A woman in Drawka reported to the police that her husband drank vodka and played cards on the job. What he was not spending on vodka he was losing at cards, she complained. The police found the charges justified and promised the woman to supervise drinking at her husband’s factory more closely. “In the factory and near the factory, at the construction site or near the construction site, there is drinking, there is even a great deal of drinking,” the party newspaper said. “Fear of punishment, fear of disgrace, or fear of dismissal is not great”