Company Drug and Alcohol Policy Advice and construction briefing.
v1July2017
This document is purely advisory and to help managers understand some of the finer points of creating and implementing a simple but highly effective Drug and Alcohol Policy.
The first thing to understand before reading this document is that there are two parts to “Testing” being first “Screening” and second “Confirmation.”
Screening can be best performed on-site to filter out the many innocent employees, but to highlight those not so innocent employees that need a closer inspection with a confirmation sample.
Confirmation is when the screening is positive, or more correctly, a “non-negative” result. Confirmation should be legally defensible, so kept to a specialist trained Collection Technician, following a chain of custody process to a workplace accredited laboratory (so not your local hospital lab!). This whole Chain of Custody collection process is here to protect the employees as the laboratory can see substances and medicines that are not illegal drugs. For illegal drugs, they detect the bodies metabolised form of the drug proving both consumption of the drug and also showing levels to be compared with workplace accepted standards. Hence confirmation must be done.
Please remember that for this procedure to be fully effective you should complete all the steps of Policy, Educate, Deter and Detect.
It all starts with a sound Drug and Alcohol Policy. The following discussion document is an overview of the points you should look to cover in your companies own policy and has suggestions to the style of wording that has worked for many other companies.
Drug and Alcohol Policy construction.
The Company should explain to employees why they are introducing a Drug and Alcohol policy.
“The Company holds health and safety as a core business value and is committed to creating a future free of incident and injury. The effective management of any potential employee drugs and alcohol abuse is an integral part of this.”
Or for example, “Following a regular risk assessment review, the company believe it is now necessary to introduce a (more substantial) drugs, substance and alcohol screening process to achieve a lowering of potential risk to employees, customers and the public from possible drug, substance and alcohol use.”
The Company should simply state that “The company operates a zero tolerance to drugs and alcohol.”
Having set out your aims, you may choose a level of alcohol and then state “This company has set a level of alcohol with a limit of:-
10 µg/100ml BrAC which is for technical reasons, effectively zero; or
22 µg/100ml BrAC which is the new drink drive in Scotland; or
35 µg/100ml BrAC which is the drink drive in England and Wales”.
“Any employee, (contractor or person engaged to work directly or indirectly,) reporting for duty, either under the influence of drugs or substances, or having consumed drugs before work or on the premises at any detectable level, or with an alcohol level above that accepted by the company is in breach of company policy.”
Also state the consequences of failing to comply. “Failure to comply with the terms of the drug and alcohol policy is considered gross misconduct and will initiate disciplinary action and may lead to dismissal”.
“The effects of drugs and alcohol take time to wear off and an employee testing positive as per current accepted workplace standards, is at risk of termination of their employment regardless of when the substance was consumed.”
Cover how the company will confidentially help any one that comes forwards. “Any employee who seeks help and guidance in overcoming a drug or alcohol problem will be treated positively by the company. This will only happen if this is completely independent of being selected for a screen or test.
The Company may have a view on hiring anyone with a prior employment related drug or alcohol problem. “Any employee who has been justifiably dismissed by a previous employer for employment related drug or alcohol problems within the past 12 months, will not be employed. Also, after 12 months, if someone is to be employed, the company may require further regular screening as evidence of satisfactory reform.”
The more specific you get, the more it leads drug takers to find and use substances that are not on the list, or even provide them arguments on the process or its implementation, from which they try to find loop holes to try to defend themselves. Experience says keep it simple, succinct and very firm. Employees and managers will find it easier to understand and know the company is serious.
Drug Screening. The best form of screening for drug use in the past few days is a skin wipe and the best confirmation of this is a urine sample as that will also detect drugs consumed over the past couple of days. If current impairment is to be shown, then a saliva screen and a saliva or urine confirmation is best. Combining both saliva and skin in a single DrugWipe Dual screen is ideal to detect both recent and previous use.
Drug Confirmation. Any non-negatives to this DrugWipe Dual screen must be confirmed with another method. Urine confirmation collected by a trained Collection Technician, on a chain of custody sample by LCMS when analysed at an approved laboratory is the gold standard and conforms to UK Workplace legally enforceable guidelines.
Other forms of confirmation can be used such as hair analysis to look back over longer periods but be aware of their constraints and limitations. The team at D.Tec can advise on these details.
Alcohol Screening. A police specification breathalyser that is in calibration, can take the first test, the screening sample. If there is no alcohol, the breathalyser will give a zero reading. If there is any number above zero, this is an alcohol reading. You don’t know if this level is falling from past consumption, or if it is increasing from alcohol consumed in the past minutes. Hence this should be confirmed.
Alcohol Confirmation. The body absorbs alcohol and the blood level will maximise at 20 minutes. Hence take a new tube and repeat the breathalyser measurement at 20 minutes. Not sooner. Not later. Ideally with a manager or witness present. This 20 minute reading is the recorded result and the figure you decide on further action from.
Wording flexibility. A certain amount of flexibility in the policy may be required to deal with unusual situations. For example, a very knowledgeable drug user may try and deflect, delay or abuse the system, so any policy needs to highlight this as Gross Misconduct and disciplinary with termination of employment. Another example is perhaps a key member of the management or even the board may record a non-negative and require some re-education and perhaps a period of tight control. Hence the choice of the words such as may and likely is entirely the companies choice and can be used in the policy.
Definitions.
Define what the company means as drugs, substances and medicines.
“Drugs are defined as illegal drugs as listed under current laws which may change from time to time; or medicines used without prescription; or in excessive (above therapeutic) doses as defined by the toxicologist or medical review officer.”
“Medicines are defined as those prescribed by a Doctor to the employee, or bought over the counter. All medicines that have the possibility of affecting or impairing someone carry warnings in the Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) of “may cause impairment or drowsiness”. Use of these impairing medicines must be reported to a manager so they can perform a risk assessment to see if it is safe for the employee to continue performing a particular type of work.”
“Substances are those which may carry warnings against consumption inhalation or ingestion such as glue, solvents and vapours, and are likely to affect health and safety, or may be substances with various titles like Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), Research Chemicals or nick names like Bath Salts. This list in non-exhaustive.”
Impairing Medicines. Many companies make it compulsory for the employee when consulting their Doctor, to request non-impairing medicines and a formal warning can be issued to the employee if this request to the doctor does not take place.
“All employees on seeing a Doctor or Pharmacist are to explain their safety critical role and request that non impairing medicines are to be prescribed where possible. If such a non-impairing medicine is not possible, the employee must report the consumption of a potentially impairing medicine to the company. Failure to do this will result in disciplinary action.”
Possession. Make sure that the policy states “Any one found in possession of illegal drugs, or consuming an illegal drug or substance on the premises in contravention of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971or Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 will be considered as gross misconduct and in breach of the company policy and will enter disciplinary procedures likely to result in dismissal. The suspect drug or substance will be confiscated and the police will be informed”.
“Any alcohol found on the premises, in desks, lockers, bags or vehicles, without authorisation of a manager will be deemed gross misconduct and subject to disciplinary measures.”
When will testing take place, for whom and how?
A company must state that testing will take place, and they must define how and when it will be done.
“Drug testing will take place Pre Employment, on Probation, at Random, on Promotion, and With Cause or With Suspicion.”
Pre Employment.
To keep the company clean and make the deterrent obvious, Pre-Employment screening is best done as soon as possible, even at first interview to surprise the candidate. State this in the letter offering the interview.
“The company has a zero tolerance to drugs and alcohol and may screen on interview.”
Then, to cover the basic administration of the pre-employment test.
“If a positive screen is found, or there is a refusal to participate, the interview procedure will be terminated.”
Probation.
During Probation or the induction period, screen more often, maybe several times a year to help get a strong message across.
“Probation screening will take place twice a year with employees chosen at random to emphasise the Zero Tolerance approach of the company.”
Random Testing.
Random is the most effective deterrent and by far the bulk of screening. Employees will be selected randomly using some consistent method. If you do end up in arbitration, at this point, you may have to prove that the selection system used by the company was random. This testing at random can be as simple as when the Area manager meets up with a Sales Representative he selects a black or a red ball! At the other end of the spectrum, a formal computer based employee pay roll random number selection can be generated. Do not over complicate it ! Choose whatever process makes the most practical but fair system for your company and your safety critical employees. Also decide that if the employee is not present on that day, i.e. on days off, then they should be tested on the first day they return to work.
“Random screening will be performed with a random selection of payroll numbers on one random day each week on each and every site in the company.
Random screening rate.
Make sure your testing is sufficient. Choosing to randomly select a driver once in every ten years does not appear to a Crown Court Judge in a potential manslaughter case as neither significant nor sufficient. Conversely, testing every employee once every week is also neither logical nor financially viable. Perhaps a regime where employees risk being tested every other year is a suitable deterrent! So that means 50% of the work force a year, which is 1% of employees each week.
“Random screening will involve 1% of the work force each week chosen at random.”
With Cause.
Screening With Cause is when an accident or any incident may give rise to the need to drug and alcohol screen, not just as potential punishment but to help create the deterrent and also in order to prove to the company insurers that drugs or alcohol were not involved.
“Any incident or suspicion must be reported to a manager will requires an alcohol and a drug screen or if deemed necessary by the manager, possibly go directly to a confirmation urine screen.”
With Suspicion.
This is potentially more difficult. Managers are not usually trained to spot a drug user, but may have experience of alcohol consumption. In this case, screen the employee and state that
“With Suspicion screening takes place because a suspicion has arisen and the company would like to eliminate the possibility of the involvement of drugs or alcohol.”
You do not need to explain why or from whom the suspicion has arisen. This can even be done without any policy in place, simply under the Health & Safety at Work Act, where if you suspect and fail to do anything, you become liable. In other words, you have to react. However, should the situation eventually go to arbitration or a court of law, the company may be required to detail how the suspicion arose.
Who is to be tested?
The company will also need to clarify who is to be tested.
“All employees, contractors, managers and directors will be subject to drug and alcohol screening.”