Sure a few of you will have a good idea on this one.

If a member of staff turns up at work unfit due to drink and we either suspend them and send them home or purely send them home until they are fit to return, where does this leave us if they just jump in their car for instance and drive off. Morally we should report them to the police but assume we owe them a duty of care for their own safety by refusing to let them drive off?

We're looking at this from both a HR and Health and Safety issue (we don't currently have a drink & drugs policy - but will be very shortly by the looks of it)

Ta!
Jonathan

That is our main theme of thinking, either they taxi or bus home or we take them home.

Williamx, you seem to be good at spending other people's money for them. From where do you assume that you get the authority to do that, and them make it worse by considering an unauthorised deduction from salary?



Hally, surely it's twofold. You may perceive a duty of care to stop them injuring themselves though at that point some may sit on their hands and assume that through misuse of alcohol they have voted themselves out of the system.

But the issue is surely not [only] to protect a drunk from his own driving, its far more protecting some innocent individual from a drunk driver. It goes far beyond a moral question to one of pain and injury, or worse, and if the situation is as you suggest it is perhaps one that demands definitive and decisive action, not a dithering debate of morality hidden within the convolutions of HR.

Hally,
PM me if you want to talk further, we have a reasonably tested D&A Policy and I have had a similar issue.

If a positive test is provided we advise them not to drive and we will call the police if they do.

We have had one guy 3 times the drink drive limit and we sat on the bonnet of his car until he gave us his car keys and / or the police arrived (Both happened nearly at the same time).

Legally we where not in a position to keep hold of his keys if he wanted them back, but morally I told him I would not give them back until he provided a clear test (Which he did 1 week later!!)

Rob

I'd let you walk Ian

Had a problem like this once.
Employee turn up for work after a heavy nights drinking (he admitted himself)
He had a company van, I confiscated his keys and drove him home.
HR started disciplinary proceedings next day.

You cannot deduct from wages unless by agreement. Try it and then diary a trip to your lawyer.
Jon

It is true that the rail industry has for many years adopted a D&A policy. This policy must also be part of the employees/contractors terms of contract, otherwise it will be fraught with problems. That said, there are still difficulties from time to time and without a D&A test nothing can be proved.

How far an employer's duty of care extends to an employee is a moot point. I would say outside the employer's workplace it does not normally exist. In the hypothetical case provided you can do no more than bring it to the attention of the employee and ask them to leave the premises. A responsible employer would suggest the employee use an alternative means of transport if they have their own vehicle. You cannot force anyone to do anything against their will without firm evidence of alcohol/drug abuse.

The disciplinary aspect is another matter altogether, but again without any company policy in place to deal with such matters the company is on a sticky wicket. If at the time of the alleged offence there was more than one witness ie manager, plus another, then this might be enough evidence to warrant a disciplinary.

A quick biased post from me so this may vanish in minutes when the mods see it :)

http://www.intox.com/default.aspx?top

Can provide a breath screening unit at a good price (Same technology as used by the police just not calibrated to same level) and a training DVD.
If you are feeling plush you could buy an evidential unit :)

Disclaimer - I used to work for the company that manufactured the internal fuel cell and so note my opinion is biased, other manufactures do exist.