If they are operating machinery or driving they shouldn't be drinking. That's not discrimination. If some of your staff are expected to taste or drink socially with clients then other transport arrangements should be made if neccessary.

Is it just me or does anyonelse now feel like they're working in the wrong industry? ;-)

Our van drivers cover the home counties and London, driving through the day 5 days a week in transit style vehicles, they are the one who may be susceptible to the night before failure, which I am also aware of, the company line being that the person has some responsibility for there actions outside work (which I do agree with)

Note to Safety Smurf I think you maybe LOL :-b

Very difficult, if you are a union company then I would suggest you involve the union safety reps from the beginning, if not then involve the reps of safety.

Two companies I worked for had a drugs & alcohol testing procedure which covered two aspects
1) For cause - if somebody was suspected of being under the influence then they could be tested.
Testing was by an outside agency but my last company was moving towards internal testing
initially, with confirmation outside testing if positive result received.
Refusal to take the test would be taken as a "positive" test.
2) Random - a testing company would attend.
a) One company I worked for had HQ & movable sites. The testing company were given a list of
teams A - K they would pick a letter then that team would be tested on site.
The testing company tested the HQ staff (10 out of 20 picked out of the hat on the day of
test) by just arriving and announcing the test NOW. This was on a once a year basis.
b) Another company had 4 random tests per year (not evenly split just when arranged). The test
team would arrive and pick out work 20 numbers of the persons on site and 5 work numbers of
management/administration. Those people would be tested.
In both cases some people were tested more than others but it really was the luck of the draw.

Our policy defined the allowable limit of alcohol measured in blood, urine and breath samples.
It stated how and where the tests would be carried out and by whom.
(Internal testing would have been by qualified member of management team with a qualified union representative in attendance as a witness to the validity of the test).
It stated the consequences of refusing to take the test or of proving positive. It also stated the appeals process or at least a reference to it.
The policy was reviewed every 3 years and was signed as an approved policy by the senior union shop steward and the CEO.

Hope this helps

Hi

I used to work in the manufacture of breath alcohol detection equipment. Let me know if you want advice on which screener to buy... Once you have your policy sorted of course :)

good luck.

One additional point in your policy make clear that those to be tested must declare any medicines, drugs etc they are taking or have taken (think we used over previous 3 weeks) before they are tested as it will not be accepted as mitigation to say after they test positive.
Also prior to testing our HR administrator would get the testee to sign that they were or were not taking any medication.
Our D&A Policy had a section that referred to employees who had a drug or alcohol related problem that referred to our more extensive HR policy on D&A problems. The D&A policy outlined that any problem had to be declared 24 hours prior to testing and would not be mitigation if revealed by testing.
Not sure if the 24 hours would stand up in an ET but we wanted to stop people declaring a problem just before they were tested.

Take Care