The workers are waiting to find out how much compensation they will be awarded because their old jobs have been given to other workers.

They were sacked from Samuel Smith's brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, after they were caught drinking by surveillance cameras.

An industrial tribunal hearing in Leeds was told two secret cameras were set up when six crates of beer went missing from the bottling plant during May last year.

'Drinking was customary'

The workers argued their sackings were unfair and claimed they had always had a couple of drinks a day and thought it part of brewery tradition.

But the tribunal was told that company rules stated that drinking on the premises "may" be a sackable offence and after disciplinary hearings the 12 were fired for gross misconduct and unauthorised drinking.

The workers' representative, John Bowers, said: "They believed it was accepted by the management that they drank, whether it was turning a blind eye through custom and practice, or part of the culture."

In a reserved judgment the tribunal has ruled in favour of the sacked workers finding they were unfairly dismissed.

The tribunal panel said the staff's conduct had contributed to their sackings and the compensation award would be cut by 50% to take this into account.

Brewery is 'dry'

One of the workers, James Wilson, 57, from Leeds, said: "I'm overjoyed, we were wrongly dismissed in the first place, the brewery found us guilty before we had a chance to put our case."

Mr Wilson said most of the 12 had now found other jobs.

The brewery's advertising manager Graham Auton said the vacancies created by the sackings had now been filled.

Mr Auton said company rules made it clear that the brewery was "dry".

A date for the compensation hearing has not yet been fixed.