Workplace guidelines: Employers who use drug testing to dismiss employees could face huge legal bills for discrimination if they do not first offer them a chance rehabilitation, an expert in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction has warned.
Speaking at the launch of a set of guidelines for employers on drugs and alcohol problems in the workplace, Declan Murphy of the Forest treatment clinic in Co Wicklow said drug and alcohol abuse cost the economy an estimated €3 billion annually.
But he said no employer should dismiss a worker because of drug and alcohol abuse without first providing them with the opportunity to address the problem.
An employee should also be able to ask for help with an abuse problem even if it has not yet affected their work.
Under new health and safety workplace legislation, which comes into effect on September 1st, employers will be required to implement alcohol and drug policies, Mr Murphy said.
But while the Government has yet to make a decision on whether to allow employers to introduce compulsory drug testing, he said companies should avoid such testing "if they have any way to do that".
Frequently, the cost of ensuring such tests were done to a high enough standard that they would stand up in a court of law was prohibitive, Mr Murphy said.
These include the cost of hiring trained laboratory technicians to undertake the test on-site, and ensuring the integrity of the samples is preserved.
Drug tests should not be used "as a route to dismissal" but rather as a "route to a solution", he said.
Legal advice he had received also indicated that, if challenged, a decision to dismiss automatically could lead to a case for discrimination under equality and employment legislation.
Mr Murphy was commenting after launching the Epic (education, prevention, intervention, care) programme alongside the Renault Ireland entrepreneur and author Bill Cullen in Dublin recently.
The programme, which companies can sign up to at a cost of €4 per employee annually, offers them a "ready-made" set of policies and procedures which they can apply to their workplace. It also provides workplace educational information for employers to pass on to employees, and a support service providing companies with access to experts in the area.
Epic, a not-for-profit company set up by Mr Murphy and Mr Cullen, claims that companies employing a total of 110,000 workers have already committed to its programmes.
Mr Cullen said the upcoming legislation meant employers were facing a "completely different ball game" when it came to drug and alcohol policies in the workplace. But many employers were unaware of their liabilities.
Ann Broekhoven of Bupa, which is supporting the programme, acknowledged that one long-term effect of a preventative approach to the issue could be a reduction in insurance premiums.