For Businesses

The legal position

Did you know that employers have a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees?

If you knowingly allow an employee under the influence of excess alcohol to continue working and this places the employee or others at risk, you could be prosecuted.

Similarly, your employees are also required to take reasonable care of themselves and others who could be affected by what they do.

In the transport industry, there is additional legislation in place to control the misuse of alcohol and drugs. The Transport and Works Act 1992 makes it a criminal offence for certain workers to be unfit through drink and or drugs while working on railways, tramways and other guided transport systems. The operators of the transport system would also be guilty of an offence unless they had shown all due diligence in trying to prevent such an offence being committed.

What can I do?

Find out if there is a problem. Problems may come from employees:

• drinking during working hours
• drinking during breaks or before coming on shift
• regular heavy drinking outside working hours
• getting drunk outside working hours.

You may find it useful to find out from your employees what they know about the effects of alcohol on health and safety, what they feel currently about drinking alcohol during working hours and their understanding of any restrictions or rules on alcohol use in your business.

You may also want to explore the information you have on:

• sickness absence
• productivity
• accident records
• disciplinary problems.

This may help you to find out if alcohol is harming your business.