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Drug Problems in the Workforce and the Small Business Owner

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by Eve Pearce, guest author

Any business thrives on a happy, healthy workforce. No employer is going to put up with an employee who regularly arrives for work intoxicated or who leaves early to get their first fix. However, small businesses often feel like families and you may wish to support a valued member of your team who asks for help with a substance misuse problem. What can you do and what should you do about addiction at your place of business?

Legal Liability  

It’s not hard to see that if you work in safety-critical business and you know that one of your employees is not safe because of drug or alcohol abuse that you could find yourself in legal hot water if someone is injured by their actions.

Drug Testing at Work

As a business owner you are certainly allowed to set-up drug testing policies in your business as the law currently stands. You may even declare yourself a drug-free workplace with drug testing to back that up. In New Jersey there is no legislation on the issue as yet (though the State and many private employers declare themselves to be drug-free workplaces) but there have been test cases. These have found that drug testing must be measured against the rights of the employee to a private life but that the legality of each employer’s decision should be judged on a case by case basis. In the test case – Hennessey v. Coastal Eagle Point Oil – the judge found that the complainant (who had been terminated after failing a random test) was working in a position that was hazardous enough that the employer’s rights to make sure he was safe was more important than his right to privacy. This may mean that you wish to consult a lawyer before you go ahead with testing. It should be noted that the hows of testing can be important too – there is a deal of difference between asking an employee to take a simple heroin addiction self-assessment test and regularly demanding urine samples.

As well as seeking legal advice you will also need to consider what sort of testing you want to conduct. If you have unions at your workplace you should consult them. Most people are perfectly reasonable and will accept that being intoxicated at work is not a good idea. However, some labor activists have come out against urine testing because of its ability to detect after the event – that is, you’re testing your employees for something they may have done in their own time. Mouth swab testing is much more short term. This may become more of an issue if Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational cannabis use spreads to more states. At the moment, any such decision doesn’t appear imminent in New Jersey, but the state does have a medical marijuana program and there are certainly powerful advocates for a full legalization program. This is for you to decide. Very few companies want to see employees drunk at work but insisting on hiring abstainers is another thing entirely, you may decide to take the same line on marijuana.

Helping Addicts

Small businesses by their very nature are less likely to have the resources to run major programs on substance abuse. Small businesses are probably more at risk from the related dangers and more likely to be more affected by the problems of a drug using workforce.

To implement a drug-free policy you will probably need to write a policy, offer some training to staff and supervisors and implement drug testing. You may also wish to offer assistance to employees with alcohol or illegal drugs.

The Department of Labor recommends an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) with referral services (for family members too) and a good directory of resources for help. You may wish to include some counselling in your EAP.

Its scope is up to you. Addicted employees are unlikely to be able to give of their best during their working hours. The medical jury is still out on addiction however. There are those who believe it is a disease and those who believe it is a learned behavior. It is a complex area and treatment for addiction can be long and painful business – you should bear this in mind if you wish to support employees on their journey to recover.



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