Construction Workers and Substance Abuse

By Leonard Toenjes

Q: : I suspect an employee of having a drinking problem. I have not smelled alcohol on him, but sometimes his speech is slurred, his complexion is red and he just looks out of it. He has been in no major catastrophes, but I figure it is only a matter of time. He was counseled about drug and alcohol abuse before he started. What do you recommend I do to verify that he has a problem and prevent it from causing a problem on the jobsite?

A: Dealing with chemical and substance abuse is a problem every employer faces. There are many things that can go wrong quickly when an employee is under the influence including loss of productivity, accidents, and other internal personnel problems.

A company-wide approach is your best bet rather than trying to deal with individual problems. I know this sounds like the entire company is suffering because of the suspicious actions of one employee, but I believe that a company-wide approach to this issue is the best route.

I suggest your company adopt a zero-tolerance substance abuse policy. Set a date and inform all current employees of the new policy.

Let employees know that it is your intention to create a substance-free, healthful, and safe workplace. Include a statement in your policy that all employees are required to report to work each day in the appropriate mental and physical condition to perform their jobs, both for field personnel and office staff.

Make it very clear in your policy that no employee may use, possess, distribute, sell or be under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs at any time while he or she is on your payroll. You will need to permit the use of prescribed drugs as long as this use does not impair an employee’s work performance.

Be Specific

It may be necessary for you to specifically mention individual drugs and tolerance levels. Local drug testing laboratories can help you develop the list and set these tolerance levels at something you are comfortable with.

You need to certainly outline disciplinary actions, up to and including immediate termination of employment. Local hospitals, health care providers or social service agencies sponsor a variety of substance abuse rehabilitation or treatment programs. Consider referral of offending employees to one of these providers who you have pre-approved as an option to termination.

You should also be aware that according to the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act, an employee working on a government contract or grant must notify you of any criminal conviction for drug-related activity occurring in the workplace within five days.

I suggest that this policy be implemented with an initial company-wide testing of all employees, a requirement for ongoing random testing and a for-cause clause if there are accidents on the jobsite. Random testing can be set at your will with some structure for privacy, fairness, and inclusion of all employees. Again, a local substance abuse testing laboratory should have some standard language you can modify to suit your purposes.

With this structure in place, you can test your suspected drinker on a random test, determine if there really is a problem and have the protection to deal with this effectively and fairly.