Posted By Ian Mycroft Has anyone had experience of implementing Drugs and Alcohol policies?

Posted By Bill Bircham Gentlemen, Coming from the rail industry, we tackled this potentially sensitive issue a number of years ago following an incident involving a train driver and 'soft' drugs. The approach taken was one of education on how these issues can affect human performance, the effects 'suffered' by the users and how long these subsatnces, including alcohol, stay in effect in the system. A key role was winning the support of the unions in both supporting and actively promoting the policies. Once this agreement was reached, the industry then had to develop a set of procedures for managing the issue. The basic outliune is:- 1.The policy will be implemented from (date). 2.Therefater, anyone found to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs whilst on duty, or taking alocohol or drugs whilst on duty, or attempting to 'book on' under the influence would be subject to disciplinary action, most likely dismissal. 3. Those persons currently with a drink or drugs related problem must seek help from their employer immediately. They will then be given counselling and support to overcome the probelm. This may involve transfer to duties of a non-safety critical nature until the porblem is resolved. 4. All new entrants to safety critical position shall be required to undergo a medical screening for drugs prior to appointment. 5. Random sampling shall take place of a minimum of 5% of the safety critical workforce. A positive result or refusal to attend shal be dealt with as oputlined in point 2 above. I would urge you not to underestimate the amount of work involved in setting this up. Union involvement at the earliest stage is paramount. Using the argument that thier members under the influence endager many others is a hard argument to counter, but they will want certain safeguards in place for their members. Having said that, I have been involved in a number of these instance, and in every case dismissal was the final result, but robust personnel procedure are required here. Before implementation, the counselling serivce needs to be widely publicised and ready from day one. Additionally, all those involved have to undergo training on how to manage the issue of a person coming to thier notice as being under the influence. One final point, you would need to arrange for a 'for cause' 24hrs screening service to be available, with chain of custody arrangements etc in place. I have only really scratched the surface of this here, but hopefully this will help. If I can be of further assistance, please e-mail me.