New legislation means some employees may face tests for intoxicants. Elaine Edwards reports
Picture this: you roll into work on a Monday morning, strong coffee in hand. You're a little the worse for wear after a night on the tiles at the weekend, but you'll struggle through the day.
Half an hour later, you get a call from your company's personnel department stating that your boss wants your alcohol and/or drug level tested and that you must immediately comply.
A small stretch of the imagination, perhaps, but not that small.
New health and safety legislation, due to come into force in September, makes provision for future regulations whereby some employees may have to submit to tests for intoxicants.
The intention to introduce drug and alcohol testing for employees at any level raises a complex debate. It intertwines issues such as Ireland's widely acknowledged alcohol problem, an employer's right to expect its workers to be sober, safe, efficient and productive, an employee's right to a private life and everyone's entitlement to a safe workplace.
Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Tony Killeen said earlier this month the primary focus of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 was to prevent deaths and injuries in the workplace.
It was, he added, important to allay fears that testing would become a requirement for all employment. "There is no such intention," he said.
Mr Killeen also insisted the requirement for testing for intoxicants would not come into force until consultation with the social partners and other groups had taken place.
The regulations are expected to introduce a testing requirement for "safety-critical" situations, and then "only on a sectoral basis".
Ibec, the main employers' body, claims absences from work cost businesses about €1.5 billion a year and that 14 million working days (nearly eight per person) are lost through absence.
In a survey of 557 organisations by Ibec last year, nearly a quarter said that many male absences were not due to "genuine ill health".
A total of 12 per cent of companies cited alcohol and alcohol-related illnesses as a cause of short-term absence for men, while just 4 per cent said it was a cause of women's absence. Around 40 per cent of short-term absence occurs around weekend days.
Certain firms, including US multinationals, already operate drug- testing prior to employment. Connex, the company that operates the Luas light rail line in Dublin, has a "zero tolerance" policy for alcohol and drug use.
"In an effort to ensure that all our staff comply with this policy we test all our staff randomly for alcohol/drug use. We have 100 per cent compliance with this policy," a spokeswoman said.
Sylvester Cronin, safety and health adviser with Siptu, says it is arguable whether the question of drug and alcohol testing should be in occupational health legislation and that it could have been dealt with in the industrial relations arena.
Following initial objections, the wording of the legislation was changed so that any tests would have to be carried out by a medical practitioner rather than by a "competent person", which the unions said could mean a worker with two days' training in using commercial drug- testing kits.
Cronin says he believes some employers genuinely concerned about safety and health issues could do more in other areas.
"For instance, I think only about a quarter of employers in the country have a proper safety statement, which is effectively management's blueprint for managing safety," he says.
He adds that trade unions, including Siptu, have no problem with the responsibility being placed on an employee to turn into work in a fit state.
"Generally speaking, we don't have a huge difficulty, provided this thing is going to be administered fairly and that it's going to be in line with what the Minister said, that it's for safety-critical jobs and operations and that it can't be used willy nilly as a harassment tool."
Tony Briscoe, assistant director of Ibec, says he does not believe the intoxicant-testing aspect of the new legislation should be looked at in isolation.
"There are other provisions in the legislation which coincide with it. For example, one of the observations that have been made is the fact that employees have the duty to report to their employer contraventions of the legislation."
And he says Ibec would "probably not" want to see testing introduced across all sectors.
"But the difficulty from a health and safety practitioner's point of view is to make a call as to what is safety critical.
"Where do you draw the line? It's certainly obvious that if somebody is operating or driving machinery where there is a risk of significant injury or loss of life to the public or fellow employees . . . where if the person was not mentally and physically capable of doing that in a safe fashion they would be putting others at risk.
"For example, you could just as easily argue that someone who may have a responsibility as a fire warden in an office environment, which would typically be considered low-risk, needs to be compos mentis in a critical situation where it arises."
Tanya Ward, of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, says the only area in which drug testing could be permitted is in a safety-critical area. She says there is a basic assumption in a democracy that such powers will not be introduced at random.
There is also a right to privacy under the Constitution and a right to respect for one's private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"Concerns around productivity do not merit a good reason to allow testing," Ms Ward says.
In its submission on the draft legislation, the ICCL said there had been no research to suggest that the consumption of alcohol and drugs was a widespread problem in the workplace in Ireland.
It also said no legislation had been published to date which proved links between drug use and workplace accidents.
Epic aims
Newly founded Epic Ireland is a not-for-profit programme with, it says, the sole focus of tackling alcohol and drug (A&D) abuse in the Irish workplace.
It is an employer-focused organisation, providing supports for "the identification, management and education" of those in the workplace.
Its goals are, according to its website:
Declan Murphy of Epic Ireland and the Wicklow-based Forest therapeutic centre for those with alcohol and drug issues says most companies in Ireland have "absolutely no alcohol and drug policies, let alone any procedures in how to handle alcohol and drug issues".
Murphy says one major insurance company has already indicated it might consider cutting employers' insurance premiums if they were to adapt drug and alcohol policies along the line of the one offered by Epic.
"From September 1st onwards, if a company knows or suspects that there is an alcohol or drug issue with an employee and fails to take any corrective action, then the employer becomes personally liable. So it's a pretty draconian piece of legislation, but nonetheless it should shake the country into tackling drug and alcohol issues for what they are."
Useful weblinks:
Siptu: www.siptu.ie
Ibec: www.ibec.ie
Irish Council for Civil Liberties: www.iccl.ie
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: www.entemp.ie
Alcoholics Anonymous: www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie
Narcotics Anonymous: www.na.ireland.org/
Epic Ireland: www.epicireland.ie
Elaine Edwards