Handling Drug and Alcohol Issues in the Workplace
Statistics suggest that 13% of workers in the UK use illegal drugs, 15% of workers have been intoxicated whilst at work and 5% of “sickness” absences are alcohol related. In short, no employer is “safe” from thinking that this article will not apply to them.
Drug and alcohol misuse can often be evidenced in the workplace by:
· Absenteeism
· Lateness/poor punctuality
· Productivity drop
· Underperformance
The difficulty with this issue is establishing if the use of alcohol/drugs is one of dependency or recreational use. If it is the former the capability procedure should be applied, whereas the latter means you could follow the misconduct route.
If the capability route is appropriate, medical evidence may be appropriate and support/treatment initiatives may be necessary. That said it is often the case that the employers confidence is lost in the employee or a return to resuming duties within a reasonable timeframe are unrealistic; in which case performance management with dismissal as a consequence may be appropriate and justifiable.
In the case of recreational use, it may be more straightforward to focus the investigation on the pertinent issues – such as lateness. In this case the disciplinary procedure could be appropriate and simply avoid mention of the perceived underlying cause.
It is worth noting that addiction or dependency can only constitute a disability (and thus be subject to disability discrimination protection (Equality Act 2010)) if they are triggered by the use of prescription drugs or other medical conditions.
Posted on 01/11/2018 by Ortolan
