Employment
Law
Briefing...
Union of Construction, Allied Trades & Technicians
Why drugs and alcohol are a
workplace issue
Many employers have introduced workplace drug and alcohol
policies, particularly for safety critical jobs. If you drink
alcohol or take drugs you need to be aware about how this
could affect your job.
There are a number of reasons why employers are
concerned about alcohol and drugs. They include loss of
productivity, poor performance, lateness and absenteeism
and the effect on the company’s image and reputation, but
safety is the number one concern in the building industry.
Many construction jobs involve safety critical work such as
using machinery, electrical equipment or ladders, driving or
operating heavy lifting equipment.
How drugs and alcohol can affect you
at work
Research has found alcohol to be a contributory factor in
many workplace accidents. And while there is little research
on drugs and work-related accidents, cannabis, tranquilisers,
like Valium and Librium, and opiates like heroin and codeine
are all known to slow down reaction times.
“Drinking even small amounts of alcohol before or while
carrying out work that is safety sensitive will increase the risk
of an accident,” says the safety watchdog Health and Safety
Executive (HSE). It says that while alcohol is a positive part
of life for many people and most of the time drinking alcohol
does not cause any problems, drinking too much or at the
wrong time can be harmful.
The effects of heavy drinking the previous night can last
well into the next day. It takes a healthy liver about an hour to
break down and remove one unit of alcohol (see box overleaf).
If you drink four cans of strong cider during a late night out,
you will still have alcohol in your bloodstream and could be
over the limit at work the next morning. No amount of black
coffee, cold showers or fresh air will sober you up – only time
can remove alcohol from your body.
Most drugs break down very quickly in the body but
“metabolites” remain. These can be detected in blood, urine,
hair, sweat and saliva. The presence of drugs can be detected
in urine, for most drugs, for up to three or four days after use.
So if you use recreational drugs at the weekend, they could
show up in a drug test at work the following week. Some
drugs like cannabis can be detected for up to 30 days,
especially after heavy use. And they can be detected in hair for
even longer – up to 90 days.
What is a unit of alcohol?
• Half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider
(3.5% ABV) – but a 440ml can of a stronger cider
could contain two units or more;
• A single measure (25ml) of spirits (40% ABV) – but
some drinks contain more than one shot of spirits;
• A small 125ml glass of wine ((9% ABV) – but wine
can be 14% ABV and is often served in 175 ml
glasses.
“ABV” is short for “alcohol by volume” and shows
how much pure alcohol is contained in the whole drink.
Drug and Alcohol Testing
The Information Commissioners’ Office advises: “Workers in
different jobs will pose different safety risks, so the random
testing of all workers will rarely be justified.” However, in
recent years the TUC has warned that drug testing is on the
increase in the construction industry.
There are five main types of testing:
• Pre-employment testing of job applicants;
• For-cause or reasonable suspicion testing;
• Post-accident testing;
• Random or unannounced testing; and
• Rehabilitation testing.
With regard to drugs, the TUC says that the most
common package is a urine test for cannabis, cocaine,
amphetamine, methamphetamine (also known as Crystal
Meth or Ice), benzodiazepine (tranquilisers) and opiates.
UCATT has negotiated drugs and alcohol policies with a
number of employers that specify that the workforce will be
given three months’ notice of the introduction of any drug
testing because of the time that traces of some drugs remain
in the body (see overleaf).
The law and your rights and responsibilities
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 you are
under a duty to take reasonable care of yourself and others
who could be affected by what you do at work.
The Transport and Works Act 1992 makes it a criminal
offence for certain workers, including those working “in a
maintenance capacity” (or supervising or acting as look-out
for people working in a maintenance capacity) to be unfit
through drink and/or drugs while working on the railways
and other types of transport system.
The Road Traffic Act 1988 makes driving or attempting
to drive a vehicle on a road or other public place while unfit
to drive through drink or drugs an offence.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the alcohol limit for
drivers is 80 milligrammes (mg) of alcohol per 100 millilitres
(ml) of blood (or 35 mg per 100 ml of breath or 107 mg per
100 ml of urine). In Scotland the limit is 50 mg of alcohol in
every 100 ml of blood (or 22 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of
breath).
Staying under the limit depends on things like your
weight, your gender (men tend to process alcohol faster than
women), the type and amount you're drinking, whether
you've eaten recently, your age (younger people tend to
process alcohol more slowly) and even your stress levels.
The NHS advises: “The safest option is not to drink any
alcohol at all if you plan to drive. Even a small amount of
alcohol can affect your ability to drive, and there is no way to
tell whether you are within the legal limit.”
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 makes the production,
supply and possession of controlled drugs unlawful except in
certain specified circumstances.
Your Rights
Briefing...
• If your employer tests employees for drug or alcohol use,
it should have a policy allowing this that should be
communicated to all employees;
• Where such a policy exists, an employer may rely on an
employee’s refusal to undergo such a test as grounds for
belief that they are under the influence of drugs or
alcohol;
• Case law has shown that an employment tribunal will not
This briefing provides information
about some of the legal and
employment aspects around
alcohol and drugs at work; but this
is a complex area of law and it can
only provide an overview. If you do
get into trouble because of drinking
or taking drugs outside work, or
you test positive in a drugs or
alcohol test at work, contact your
workplace or site Convenor, Shop
Steward, Branch Secretary, or
contact your Regional Office or the
UCATT Membership Unit (UMU) for
advice.
Information about alcohol
and drugs can be found at:
www.talktofrank.com/
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consider random testing, allowed for in an employer’s
policy, as an infringement of an employee’s right to
‘private life’ under the Human Rights Act;
Where an employee volunteers information (or an
employer comes to be aware) of his or her problem with
alcohol or drugs, a tribunal will usually expect the
employer to try and assist them (eg. by providing
counselling or a programme of testing) rather than
automatically dismissing them;
Where an employee works in an environment in which
health and safety is of particular importance (eg. on a
construction site), an employer is likely to be allowed to
take allegations related to drug and alcohol use more
seriously;
An employer can, in some circumstances, lawfully dismiss
an employee who attends the workplace under the
influence outside of his or her working hours;
Where an employer is found to have dismissed an
employee unlawfully on these grounds, a tribunal may still
reduce any compensation by up to 100% on the grounds
of the employee’s “contributory fault”.
Advice
• Does your employer have a drug and alcohol policy? If so,
read through it so that you are aware of the rules. Some
policies go as far as stating that you should not drink 24
hours prior to a shift so it is important that you
understand the policy in place at your workplace;
• If your employer does not have a policy, it may still
request that you undertake a test if they have reason to
believe that you are at work under the influence of drugs
or alcohol;
• Be aware that if you refuse to take a test for no apparently
good reason, your employer may use your refusal as
grounds for reasonable belief in the allegation against you;
• If you have a good reason for the refusal to undergo a test,
state it at the time and ensure that it is recorded in writing
(eg. in the minutes of a meeting). Provide documentary
evidence for the reason as soon as you can (eg. medical
evidence);
• If you disagree with the outcome of a test, do all you can
at the time to discredit it. For example, ask to be retested
by a different method or using a different machine; ask for
your own sample of what was taken; request the
maintenance documentation in respect of the machine or
equipment used to test you; if tested by a manager,
request evidence to show that he or she has been
adequately trained to do the testing etc.;
• Try to be assessed as soon as possible by an independent
tester and provide the outcome (if helpful) of that
assessment to your employer prior to the disciplinary
hearing;
• Remember that alcohol and drugs will disappear from the
system in a matter of time and different methods used to
test for the substances will be more or less accurate.
Therefore, providing an independent test taken a week
after the employer’s test may not be useful as, by then, it is
likely to be accepted that the substance that the employee
is accused to have been under the influence of would have
been undetectable by that time.
Most importantly, if you are accused of attending
your workplace under the influence, contact your union
for advice and support immediately.
UCATT Membership Unit
Tel 01332 371228
UCATT Eastern
Tel 01638 565830
UCATT Northern Region
Tel 0191 236 2636
UCATT London
and the South East
Tel 0207 622 2442
UCATT Scotland
Tel 0141 420 2880
UCATT Midlands
Tel 01332 203656
UCATT Wales
and the South West
Tel 029 2049 8664
UCATT North West
Tel 0151 228 8455
UCATT Yorkshire
Tel 0113 264 0211
Enquiry Line: 0800 262467
Join online: www.ucatt.org.uk / join-us