Why a party in a brewery wasn’t such a good idea

IT’S A phrase used to highlight a spectacular failure of organisation.

But successfully organising a p***-up in a brewery cost Carlsberg director Martin Entwistle his job – because the gathering breached Covid rules.

An employment tribunal heard Mr Entwistle, the managing director of the brewing giant’s London Fields Brewery subsidiary, invited eight friends to the tap room for drinks and a brewery tour in August 2020, when strict regulations had been imposed due to the imminent return to work of a clinically vulnerable member of staff.

The Cambridge tribunal heard the afterhours dinner and ‘guided tour’ descended into ‘boisterous, alcohol-fuelled horseplay’, and Mr Entwistle was dismissed without notice for gross misconduct.

Mr Entwistle brought a claim of unfair dismissal against Carlsberg Marston, saying the enforced rules issued to staff by the head brewer were ‘nothing more’ than ‘guidelines’, but the tribunal yesterday ruled in favour of the brewery.