Alcohol Testing

[emmie]

in the workplace, an infringement of your rights or a good idea?

http://news.sky.com/story/1165570/alcohol-testing-in-workplace-recommended

[aelmpvw]

a good idea ... let's start with the house of commons

[emmie]

could do, but i honestly don't know about this, after all unless you work in some highly sensitive business, can't see why this would be a problem. I did read that those who over indulge with alcohol can cost the country dear, by days lost in productivity, but i had thought that ethos of drinking at lunch time had long died out. A mate did find out to his cost that drinking the night before could still show up on the breathalyser the next day, as he got pulled over for a busted tail light, then done for still being over the limit, 12 months driving ban almost cost him his job.

[youngmafbog]

Obviously you dont work in the City emmie. Pubs are usually busy and on some days packed at lunchtime.

I'm a bit skeptical of some of the figures given here, is really every tenth man dependent on alcohol? How do they define dependency?

The problem with this is unscrupulous employers could use it to their advantage, already there are too many people who go to their doctor stressed by work. I can't see this helping that.

Of course, depends on the business you are in, if you drive for a living or are a doctor or something similar then there may be more of a need.

[emmie]

i did at one time a while back, and yes it was quite common, but our company had started to crack down on lunch time binges, we only ever went a bit overboard after work when we could all let our hair down after a gruelling day or on friday after a very busy week.

[emmie]

one of the highest incidences of alcohol abuse i came across, were some figures a while ago about doctors and publicans, the latter i can understand the former perhaps because of the stress, however not a case of do as i do but as i say.

[jd_1984]

We hold testing equipment where I work but have no testing regime. It acts as a good deterent and can be used if a manager has good cause.

[Gromit]

Probably a good idea.

You should not be alcohol impaired at work, and they employers should be able to know.

I was pondering this last week. 25 years ago the pubs used to be packed at lunchtime with workers on their break. There are now less workers, but the ones that there are, don't drink in the day, whether it is not permitted, personal choice, or the fear of losing their driving license. The pubs that are busy tend to cater for older people and not workers. (Spoons).

[emmie]

i can understand if one works in an industry that relies on workers safety, security, but is this another underhand way of controlling what people do, after all if it's out of working hours, what business would it be if someone goes for a pint and a pie..

[emmie]

i think this applies across the day and not just at lunch time. If you roll in next morning with a hangover, not unheard of.... or call in sick, though how you prove the fact that the worker tied one on the previous evening or is genuinely ill is quite another.

[ummmm]

The pubs round here tend to be busy at lunchtimes. People can have soft drinks. Pubs make more money from soft drinks...

[emmie]

they do, i refuse to buy a soft drink in pubs any more. So i tend to either have a drink or abstain, the latter being more these days.

[RATTER15]

"what business would it be if someone goes for a pint and a pie.."

It would certainly be my business if one of my employees arrived back at work smelling of alcohol!

I think all employers should be able to test their employees. I have known people to arrive for work after a long night out, still half drunk or with hangovers, I would have them out the door before their feet touched the floor!

[FredPuli43]

Makes more sense than banning smoking in the workplace, including company vans.

[EDDIE51]

So different now, when I started work in 1968 you could buy wine and beer in the staff restaurant to drink with your meal. On a Friday morning the only thing we did was organise which pub were going to for the lunch hour 'session'. (More like a 2 hour session in reality.)

[emmie]

Eddie, some of ours were so long it ventured into the surreal, one was lunch time drink then evening dinner in the pub, straight through, this was long ago, and probably best forgotten.

[woofgang]

good idea. Both DH and I worked in areas where there was zero tolerance for coming to work with alcohol in the bloodstream (me NHS, him the oil industry) its no big deal.

[mccfluff]

i think it depends what you do, anyone who drives/operates machinery or has humans or animals at the their mercy should be, imo

[emmie]

it is if you are a shelf stacker in tesco's, what difference would it make to them if he/she had an evening drink, what worries me is that some how a low tolerance to alcohol so could show up if they only had one drink of an evening, and yet someone else who is a regular imbiber not at all.
how do they propose to do this - breathalyser the worker before starting work?

[emmie]

as someone also mentioned on another thread some medicines have alcohol in them, how could they get around that?

[jno]

they ought to introduce it on AB. At the very least a warning sign flashing on a post saying "This person is obviously one over the eight, don't bother responding."

The News section would look like Las Vegas at night.