Beware of Big Brother culture

Findings released yesterday reveal that the number of British workers to be tested for drugs could increase dramatically in the next few months. But Croner, one of the UK’s leading providers of business information and advice, is advising employers not to be rash when it comes to approaching staff on the issue.

Random staff drugs testing is an area that has grown in breadth and complexity during recent years, and is surrounded by an equally wide and difficult range of legal and civil liberty implications.

Richard Smith, consultant and expert on employment law at Croner, which is part of Wolters Kluwer UK, believes companies considering introducing these policies should carefully investigate all possible implications before taking any action.

He says: The issue of monitoring substance abuse in the workplace is not new. For example, companies working in heavy industry or offshore, where employees need to be highly alert at all times, have often prescribed limits on workers’ alcohol consumption for safety reasons, or even banned it altogether.

The general softening of society’s attitude towards consumption of certain illegal drugs has raised subsequent wider concerns over the impact of drugs at work, and has left companies facing a major dilemma on how much influence they can have over an employee’s private life.

If an employee’s substance abuse, whether legal or illegal, is visibly affecting their performance at work, then their employer would obviously have legitimate reason for concern - but if it isn’t, they would seem to have very little authority to act on it.

Companies are much more aware of the potential damage to their corporate image if they are found to be employing people who take illegal drugs, especially in certain high-profile industries, and they don’t want to be seen to be effectively condoning it by not taking action against it.

On the other hand, companies have a duty of care over employees whilst they are at work, and there is pressure on them to treat employees with confirmed substance abuse problems compassionately and to give them help to overcome them.

Striking a balance between these two positions is obviously extremely difficult, but it has to be fully investigated if companies are looking to go down this road.

If companies are considering implementing workplace drugs tests, they need to establish explicit guidelines on what they’re doing, what is expected of their employees and what sanctions they risk if they fail any given test.

Employees need to fully comprehend the yardsticks by which they’re being measured, and the implications of not measuring up - failure to ensure that this is the case could lead to problems if tests are failed and the potential for disciplinary action arises.

Croner produces a comprehensive range of guides covering all aspects of employment law, which are available via helplines, manuals, CD-ROMs, newsletters, bulletins and the Internet.