FIRED BREWERY EMPLOYEES MAY BE GETTING JOBS BACK

WASHINGTON - Beer maker Anheuser-Busch Cos. May have to reinstate
several employees fired for using illegal drugs at work because the
company used hidden cameras without informing the employees union, a
federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The brewer fired five workers in 1998 after hidden cameras showed them
smoking marijuana in an area where employees sometimes take breaks at
one of its St. Louis brewing facilities.

Four additional workers were suspended for leaving there work areas.
Seven others, observed sleeping or urinating on the building's roof,
had to sign "last-chance" agreements saying they could be fired for
any further violation of company rules.

A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit upheld a finding that the brewer committed an unfair labor
practice when it installed the cameras in 1998 before bargaining with
the union, Brewers and Maltsters, Local Union No. 6, as required under
federal labor laws.

The decision by Judge Judith W. Rogers sends the case back to the
National Labor Relations Board in Washington to determine what, if
any, remedies the disciplined employees are entitled to, including the
possibility of reinstatement for those fired.

The NLRB had ruled that the employees were not entitled to
reinstatement or back pay because Anheuser-Busch had good cause to
discipline them. But the court held that the company would not have
known about the misconduct without viewing the unlawful hidden-camera
tapes.

Judge David B. Sentelle dissented, saying the employees could still be
disciplined for misconduct, even if the cameras were unlawfully installed.

The NRLB has long allowed hidden cameras in the workplace as long as
the company bargains with the union, thought a company does not have
to say where the cameras are placed.

Anheuser-Busch argued that the cameras were a matter of internal
security and that employees had no expectation of privacy in the
elevators motors room and the rooftop, which were not official break
areas.

A spokesman for Anheuser-Busch and an attorney representing the union
did not immediately return calls seeking comment.