Chapter 2
Policy

Summary

You have but two policy options for dealing with drug-and/or-alcohol-abusing employees: You can ignore the issue, or you can devise and implement a substance abuse prevention program. In pursuing the latter, you must determine your goals for the program and consider what restrictions on drug and alcohol use will be asked of employees and what will be done when an employee is found to be in violation of the policy.

In the interest of fairness and good business practice, it is wise to create a written policy statement and announce it to the workforce before initiating any drug-and-alcohol-abuse prevention program. The document should be clear, acknowledged by each employee (in writing), and applied in a fair and consistent manner. Any drug prevention technique (searches, urinalysis, etc.) should be described in the policy statement along with the adverse personnel actions or mandatory treatment requirements that would be levied against violators.

Details

The first and most important step in a drug-or alcohol-free workplace program is to develop a policy that makes your position about drug and alcohol use in the workplace very clear. You have clear guidelines on attendance, performance, conduct, and even smoking in the workplace; why shouldn’t you also have a policy that tells employees not to be present at work with drugs or alcohol in their systems?

Such a policy should also have reasonable business objectives. You should provide notice of the violations that will result in disciplinary action. The policy should be written, acknowledged in writing by all employees, and prominently displayed for a reasonable period before instituting it.

At a minimum, the following elements need to be addressed in the policy statement:

• Your overall position on drug and alcohol abuse (e.g., drug and/or alcohol abuse is a medical problem, often a legal problem, but always unacceptable in the workplace);

• Your position on the consequences for an employee using, selling, or possessing drugs or alcohol in the workplace (discipline, termination, due process, etc.);

• Your position on job performance as it relates to drug and alcohol use;

• Your position on safety of the public, your clients, and the abuser’s co-workers as it relates to drug and alcohol use;

• Your position on treatment and rehabilitation services available to employees who have drug and/or alcohol problems, including who will be responsible for paying for such treatment;

• The responsibility of the employee to seek treatment;

• The need for strict confidentiality for employees who are in treatment, and procedures for dealing with any violation of confidentiality;

• How you will enforce the policy? For example, will supervisors be trained to conduct interventions? Will employees be subject to searches? Will drug and/or alcohol testing be included in the program? If testing is to be included, what types of testing will be conducted: random, post-accident, reasonable cause, post-rehabilitation, etc.?

The policy should define key terms such as “illegal drugs” and “post-accident testing.” The policy should prohibit employees from “being at work with any detectable trace amount of drugs or alcohol in their system.” The policy should refrain from prohibitions such as “being under the influence” or “impairment” since drug tests cannot establish either of these situations. A drug test can only detect the “presence” of a drug metabolite or the “presence” of alcohol.

Avoid mixing policy with procedures. Your policy should rarely change, but procedures can and probably will change periodically. Procedural issues should be defined in a separate document, not the policy.

If you plan to conduct drug and/or alcohol testing of employees and job applicants, that should be disclosed in your policy.

If you have an EAP, workers should be informed in the policy about the program and be encouraged to use it. However, the initiation of discipline following a drug or alcohol infraction should not be postponed pending the employee’s involvement in such a program.

Once a policy is adopted, all employees should know what is expected of them by the employer and what they can expect from the employer.