Alcohol Policy at Work – Is it important?

In the final part of his series about alcoholism at work, Dr John McMahon asks if it is important to have an alcohol policy at work.  (Ed Scrivener)

Is having an Alcohol policy at work really that important?  After all, everyone knows that drinking at work, or coming to work under the influence, is not a behaviour that is tolerated.  Indeed, isn’t it obvious that this kind of behaviour would be considered gross misconduct and could, and probably would, lead to dismissal.  After all, it is just common sense so why would we need to put it into an explicit alcohol policy.

Certainly, that appears to be the attitude that many employers take.  A recent survey found that less than 20% of employers had a specific alcohol policy, apparently assuming that there was no need to state the obvious.  Are they correct in this assumption?  No they are not, not if they don’t want to fall foul of an industrial tribunal they are not.

For example it would appear that an employment tribunal would uphold a decision to sack for drunkenness, which is exactly what you would expect, is it not.   Indeed, it appears that they will even uphold a decision to fire if an employee comes to work unfit for work, even though they may not actually be inebriated.  Let’s look at an example.

United Biscuits vs Ian Waters

In a recent case, United Biscuits vs Ian Waters, it appears that Waters was fired for arriving at work smelling of alcohol and looking tired and red eyed.  He had attended the funeral of a friend the day before and had been drinking.  His supervisor accepted that he was not intoxicated, but nevertheless judged him unfit for work and banned him from the factory floor.  Waters was later sacked.  The tribunal agreed and upheld his sacking as a reasonable response in this situation.  As evidence, they cited that United Biscuits had a clear policy stating that inability to work because of alcohol would be treated as gross misconduct and could result in dismissal.

There are two important points to be taken from this case.  The first is that the tribunal cited the company’s alcohol policy as the basis for its findings.  If you trawl through tribunal findings it is clear that the outcomes of the cases are very much based on what the employer’s alcohol policy specifies and whether the employer has adhered to the particulars of its own policy.

Tribunals do not make arbitrary judgments based on some notional concept of ‘universal’ or ‘natural law’.  Instead it is based on the policy that the employer creates.   So it would it is important to, not only have a policy but to, have one that is explicit about the particular consequences that can be expected for any breach of the policy.  The second point is a far reaching one that we will return to after this next case.

Are the employees clear about your alcohol policy?

However having the policy is only one part of a company’s responsibilities.  It is also important that the employees are aware of the policy and its contents.  In another tribunal, an employee who drank alcohol during working hours, but not on the company’s premises was judged to have been unfairly dismissed, as he did not know the company’s alcohol.  He stated that he was aware that drinking alcohol on the company’s premises was subject to disciplinary proceedings up to and including dismissal.  However he argued that he was unaware that consuming alcohol when off the premises during working hours was subject to the same penalties.  You might think that this is a flimsy excuse, as of course the employees know what is expected and the consequences.  However the tribunal upheld his case as did the appeal.

Employees can be held accountable for their off duty behaviour

 One important and far reaching aspect of these judgements is that the actual drinking that led to dismissal took place outside the employers premises in both, and also outwith working hours for the second.  In this current culture of Binge Drinking a sizeable minority of your employees will drink to excess and arrive the next day unfit to work as they may be still intoxicated or hungover.  It would appear then that, provided all the proper procedures are followed, a tribunal will support an employer in firing these employees.

This could have far reaching implications.  Employers could become a positive influence on their employees’ drinking behaviour, by ensuring that all workers are fit for work and ensuring that the policy is enforced.  As part of disseminating their policy they could take this opportunity to educate the workforce about alcohol, for example the relationship between quantity consumed and the time required to metabolise the alcohol and be fit for work.  This education process could be written into the official alcohol policy.

Summary

If employers are going to protect themselves, and their workforce, they need to ensure that they create a clear and comprehensive alcohol policy.  The policy should clearly detail what is and is not allowed and the consequences for any digressions from this policy.  The policy also needs to be disseminated to all employees and to be enforced in a consistent and equitable fashion.  Lastly there is an opportunity to include some alcohol-related education (units of alcohol, how long to clear the system etc) when disseminating the policy.  This way employers could save money, have a healthier workforce and, in the unfortunate eventuality of ending up in a tribunal, employers should ensure a positive outcome.

About the author

Dr John McMahon is an alcohol expert who has been involved in the alcohol and drug field for 30 years.  He is currently the CEO of Iloumanate Ltd, a company with a mission to change the binge culture of the UK part of which involves helping employers save money by addressing their workforce’s drinking using a free website www.spreade.com

Previously he was senior lecturer in alcohol and drugs at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of the West of Scotland for 12 years and Research fellow at the University of Glasgow before that.   He was responsible for setting up and writing the MSc in Alcohol and Drug Studies as a distance learning course. This is now the largest course of its kind in the UK.

He was Research Director for a major alcohol treatment charity, was the National Chair of the Alcohol Counsellor Training scheme.  He has published two books and about fifty papers in scholarly journals, has presented at many national and international conferences and is included in Marquis Who’s Who.

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Are you an Alcohol Smart Employer (ASE)

In the 3rd instalment from Dr John McMahon he discusses whether as an employer you know how to recognise the signs of alcoholism and if you are capable to deal with this appropriately. (Ed Scrivener)

The latest estimate for how much alcohol costs industry is around £7.3bn a year (which is a rise of more than 14% in 3 years).  The majority of those costs are due to lost productivity through absenteeism and presenteeism.  However Alcohol Smart Employers can reduce the costs of drinking in their business.  Despite this, only about 50% of employers have an alcohol policy and less than 10% of those who do have a policy run alcohol awareness programmes.  Therefore sadly, less than 5% of UK employers would qualify as Alcohol Smart Employers.  What about you, are you an Alcohol Smart Employer?  To help you decide there is a list of criteria for Alcohol Smart Employers below.

What Alcohol Smart Employers (ASEs) KNOW

• ASEs know that alcohol abuse costs their business money
• ASEs know that productivity is lost through absenteeism and presenteeism
• ASEs know that having a clear and consistent alcohol policy saves money
• ASEs know that investing in educating the workforce about alcohol saves money
• ASEs know that a drinking ‘check-up’ reduces alcohol consumption in the workforce and saves money
• ASEs know that addressing alcohol issues leads to a happier workforce
• ASEs know that a happy workforce is a more productive workforce
• ASEs know that investing in the health of their workforce is taking care of their best asset

What Alcohol Smart Employers DO

• ASEs educate their managers about alcohol, its effects and how to address the issue
• ASEs investigate the drinking habits of their workforce to determine the culture
• ASEs ensure that they have an effective, current and relevant alcohol policy
• ASEs run an annual alcohol awareness campaign for their workforce
• ASEs encourage their workforce to take an annual drinking check-up
• ASEs provide help for workers who are alcohol dependent or have a family member who is
• ASEs ensure that they have Alcohol Smart Employees

Why you should be an Alcohol Smart Employer

• You will reduce absenteeism
• You will reduce presenteeism
• You will have a happier, more productive workforce
• You will reduce staff turn-over and reduce recruitment costs
• You will save money
• You will contribute to changing the binge culture of the UK and creating a better environment for the employees of the future

What about you?

Are you an Alcohol Smart Employer?  If not why not?  Are you someone who thinks that if they ignore the issue it will go away?  Well, unfortunately there is no evidence that that is going to happen soon.  Indeed, if we look at the pattern of drinking across the UK, and even wider across Europe, we see that it has changed in the last decade, and not for the better. 

It is difficult to escape the images of what is being called the ‘Binge Culture’, that is so prevalent.  Unfortunately, there is an increase in the number of TV programs that rely on CCTV for its content and, naturally, they show the most sensational clips.  These usually show someone who is the worse of drinking falling around, fighting, challenging the police or having to be taken away to hospital in an ambulance for treatment.  One consequence of these images is that they give an impression that this is the normal way to drink and enjoy yourself, so it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

With the widespread rise in binge drinking there has been a corresponding rise in the negative consequences of drinking.  More people were admitted to hospital for an alcohol-related problem last year.  There has also been a rise in the alcohol-related deaths, either directly through alcohol or as a contributing factor.  Most experts attribute the consequences to the current style of drinking, which seems to consist of getting loaded as fast as possible and remain that way for the majority of the evening.  However, raising the blood alcohol level so quickly is dangerous and, for some, can have fatal consequences.

There are also consequences the next day.  For some, being so intoxicated would mean that they may be unfit for work the next day and so they phone in sick.  Others may make it to the workplace, but are still intoxicated or hungover.  But these are not your hard core of dependent drinkers, no these are the so-called moderate drinkers who have a blow-out from time to time, but with increasing regularity.

As a business person you will almost certainly be aware of the fluctuations in your market, and/or the changes in availability of raw materials if you are in manufacturing.  As a business person you need to be aware, otherwise you may not stay in business for very long.  By the same argument then it would seem prudent to know about another essential element of your business operation, the workforce.

Therefore as social mores change, it would seem sensible that you need to be aware of how these changes could affect your business and what steps that you can take to keep up to date and to reduce any negative impact.  Do you know that?  Are you an Alcohol Smart Employer?

About the author

Dr John McMahon is an alcohol expert who has been involved in the alcohol and drug field for 30 years.  He is currently the CEO of Iloumanate Ltd, a company with a mission to change the binge culture of the UK part of which involves helping employers save money by addressing their workforce’s drinking using a free website www.spreade.com

Previously he was senior lecturer in alcohol and drugs at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of the West of Scotland for 12 years and Research fellow at the University of Glasgow before that.   He was responsible for setting up and writing the MSc in Alcohol and Drug Studies as a distance learning course. This is now the largest course of its kind in the UK.

He was Research Director for a major alcohol treatment charity, was the National Chair of the Alcohol Counsellor Training scheme.  He has published two books and about fifty papers in scholarly journals, has presented at many national and international conferences and is included in Marquis Who’s Who.

Has this inspired you to discuss HR?  Leave your comments here.

*****

Discuss HR is that HR blog brought to you by the people of Human Resources UK, the HR LinkedIn group with 11,000+ members dedicated to the world of HR.

Any source