Contact advice@labourguide.co.za for parts 1-7

Alcoholism and the workplace (Part 8)

This is the final part in this series dealing with alcoholism or drug problems in the workplace.

The employer’s policy should basically follow these guidelines:

[a] establish that this is an ongoing problem and not a once-off incident.

[b] meet with the employee and his representative if required, or with the employee and spouse.

[c] discuss the problem – try to establish when it stated, for how long has it been continuing, try to establish the cause of the problem. If you can identify the cause, you can teat the problem far more successfully.

[d] try to get the employee’s agreement that he/she will go to a professional organization for counseling – such as Alcoholics Anonymous, SANCA, and so on.

[e] discuss and agree on what the employee will do to assist himself to stop alcohol consumtion or drug usage.

[f]  discuss and agree on what the spouse/family will do to assist him.

[g] discuss and agree on what assistance the employer will provide – financial, time off to attend counseling sessions, time off for re-hab if necessary, and so on.

It is no easy task to address this problem.

The employer is certainly, in the majority of cases if not in every case , ) faced with a flat denial by the employee that a problem exists.

In addition, the problem drinker will advance a thousand reasons to try and justify his drinking or drug habits.

To give you a very simple example, run a practice session on a friend or family member who is a cigarette smoker. Ask him why he smokes, of what benefit is it to him (in terms of good health and financially ) to smoke, try to put reasons to him why he should stop smoking.

You will get a thousand reasons as to why he should smoke, or why he does smoke, dozens of reasons to justify burning his money away,  plenty of reasons why (for him) it is not a problem, he can afford it, his health is fine, it has no adverse effects on his family, it is his body and he can do what he likes with his body, his smoking habit does not deprive his family of anything that they need, and so on.

He will skillfully avoid or gloss over those issues of the detriment to his health, the coughing fits early in the morning, his shortness of breath, the fact that his habit costs an average of R500 per month, and so on.

With the problem drinker or drug user it is the same. It may take some time before he admits that he has a problem and needs help. It is common knowledge that the alcoholic cannot be helped until the time when he reaches that stage – the acknowledgement that the problem exists, the acknowledgement that, without help, he is powerless to solve the problem, and thus the acknowledgement that he needs help.

Until that stage is reached, the employee will strongly deny that a problem exists, he will vehemently defend his stance that he can quit any time he wishes to do so, and he will strongly deny that he needs help.

When the employee is in that stage, there is nothing much the employer can do – you cannot force the employee to submit himself to re-hab or counseling.

For this reason, the employer’s Disciplinary Code & Procedure Policy must provide for disciplinary action against problem drinkers in the workplace, because if the employee will not accept help with the problem, the only solution may be dismissal.

Obviously, this can also be handled in terms of incapacity – poor work performance if that situation prevails. But there are those problem drinkers who perform their duties expertly and without fault when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and thus the situation may exist that despite being “tanked up” on the job, the employee’s work performance cannot be faulted – and that is where disciplinary action is resorted to.

If there are problem drinkers in your workforce, address the issue – don’t leave it with the notion that “ if he wants to drink himself to death, then that is his business.”  It is very much your business.

If the issue is left unattended, what message are you sending out to the rest of the workforce ?  I will tell you.

You are sending out the message that drug usage and alcohol consumption on the job is o.k. and quite acceptable.

I do not need to elaborate on the consequences of that.

The South African Labour Guide is a private company and has no association with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), you may find the CCMA on www.ccma.org.za