Basque bin lorry driver loses appeal after drink and drug driving on the job

The court confirmed the maximum disciplinary sanction imposed by his employer over the incident, which took place in June 2024.

The driver had worked in refuse collection since 2013. He was stopped by the Ertzaintza, the Basque regional police force, at around 3am on 15 June 2024 while driving on the GI-2630 road. His breath alcohol readings came back at 0.37 and 0.34 milligrams per litre of exhaled air - more than double the legal limit of 0.15 milligrams for lorry drivers.

Police also found he had tested positive for THC, cocaine and amphetamines, according to the court ruling. Officers stopped him from continuing to drive the fourteen-tonne refuse lorry, and a colleague took over the route instead.

His employer dismissed him for gross misconduct soon after. The company said he had driven the vehicle through several towns in Guipúzcoa while impaired, including Lazkao, Beasain, Ezkio-Itsaso, Zumarraga and Urretxu, creating a clear danger to himself and other road users, it said.

The company also pointed out that its internal rules explicitly ban employees from turning up to work under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The driver, it added, had received years of health and safety training.

The driver appealed. He argued the dismissal was disproportionate and that his conduct should have been classed as serious misconduct rather than gross misconduct. Both a labour court in San Sebastián and the Basque Country High Court rejected his case.

In its judgment, issued on 23 June, the court said this was not simply an isolated case of drunkenness at work. It amounted, the judges said, to "inexcusable negligence" by a professional driver entrusted with operating a heavy vehicle used for urban waste collection.

The court found he had breached employment rules and the company's health and safety policies. He had also broken road traffic law, judges said, by driving a heavy goods vehicle while under the combined influence of alcohol and several drugs.

Judges considered the risk to public safety particularly serious. They pointed to the vehicle's size, the number of towns along the route and the fact that the collection ran overnight.

The court concluded that dismissal was entirely proportionate to the seriousness of the misconduct. It upheld the first-instance ruling, which had already declared the disciplinary termination lawful. The judgment is not final and can still be appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court.