Drug & Alcohol Policy

DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING POLICY

THOMAS Recruitment Limited operates a policy of alcohol/drug testing as follows.

With-cause testing for all staff at all levels: an alcohol/drugs test will be carried out in all cases where the employee has had any involvement in a workplace accident or in any incident that has caused or could have caused a danger to health or safety. Testing will also be carried out where management has grounds to believe or suspect that an employee is or may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Random testing: Random alcohol/drug testing will be carried out on members of staff who work in safety-critical jobs, including those working with machinery and those whose job duties involve driving.

The objectives of this policy are to:

• Maintain a safe working environment for all;
• Assist in the early identification of alcohol or drug-related problems;
• Encourage employees who think they may have an alcohol or drug-related problem to seek and accept help from the Company.

Any employee who notices obvious signs of alcohol or drug abuse in a colleague should report his/her observations and/or suspicions in confidence to a Director or a senior manager.

It is the Company’s policy to offer support to any employee who has a problem associated with use of alcohol or drugs. Any employee who believes or suspects that he/she may have such a problem is encouraged to come forward to a Director to discuss the problem in confidence. The employee will subsequently be offered support including, as appropriate, referral for advice, medical treatment, counselling and a reasonable amount of unpaid time off work.

Employees who are tested have the right to be informed of their test result before the result is passed to management.

Any refusal to undertake a test in connection with this policy will likely be treated as a gross misconduct offense.

If a with-cause or random alcohol/drugs test proves positive, the employee will be invited to attend an interview with a senior manager. The employee will have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union official at this interview.

The outcome of the interview will depend on the circumstances but could include:

• An offer for the employee to undergo a programme of medical treatment, rehabilitation or counselling, where the employee accepts that he/she has a problem with alcohol or drugs misuse and is willing to cooperate with the employer in the provision of such support;
• A written disciplinary warning, where there are no safety issues involved and the  circumstances are not too serious, in which case the employee will be tested again after three and six months respectively;
• Dismissal, where the effects of the employee’s alcohol or drug taking is or could be serious, for example, if the employee works in a safety-critical job and his/her use of alcohol or drugs could affect performance, or where a previous alcohol/drugs test within the past two years has produced a positive result.

Alcohol and drug testing will be conducted only by qualified and competent personnel who will use accepted and reliable methods and ensure that tests are carried out with the least possible intrusion into employees’ privacy. All possible measures will be in put in place to ensure the confidentiality of test results, and checks will take place to avoid any false results.