RANDOM DRUGS TESTS FOR WORKERS

DRINK AND drug misuse by workers is costing employers up to UKP3bn a year,
according to a survey published yesterday.

A quarter of workplace accidents involve workers who have been drinking,
while up to 14 million working days are lost every year through alcohol
misuse, research found.

Alcohol-related problems such as accidents cost industry UKP2bn a year
while drug misuse cost UKP800m, the survey for the Trades Union Congress
and Alcohol Concern showed.

But experts in drug and alcohol dependency clashed over the need for random
testing in the workplace.

One academic insisted that the United States experience demonstrated the
effectiveness of unexpected swoops, while another commended "less punitive"
means of controlling dependency.

Writing in Personnel Today magazine, Patrick Dixon pointed out that random
tests now covered 40 per cent of the US workforce, compared with a tiny
proportion of British employees.

Dr Dixon predicted that the American approach was about "to hit" the United
Kingdom in the wake of its success in reducing absenteeism and accidents in
the US.

Dr Dixon said that US studies showed that "substance abusers" were 33 per
cent less productive, three times as likely to be late, four times as
likely to have an accident at work, five times as likely to sue for
compensation and 10 times as likely to miss work.

He pointed out that when the US state of Ohio introduced random testing,
absenteeism fell by 91 per cent, and there was a 97 per cent decrease in
workplace accidents.

One plastics company in the United States found that many employees were
taking amphetamines after their shifts were lengthened to 12 hours. After
random testing was introduced drug-taking fell to negligible levels, Dr
Dixon said.

He pointed out that testing was cheap. Breathalysers cost UKP40 with
virtually no running costs, while drug tests had to be "carried out on only
a few to act as a deterrent to everyone".

Addressing a TUC conference yesterday on drink and drug misuse, Peter
Francis, a sociologist from the University of Northumbria, urged a less
punitive approach.

He said there were more effective means of addressing substance misuse. He
urged that the principle of "fairness" should be taken into account and
warned that there were implications that the US approach could lead to
overbearing social control.

The conference, sponsored by the TUC, Alcohol Concern and Institute for the
Study of Drug Dependence, heard that substance abuse cost employers an
estimated UKP3bn a year. Some UKP2bn was lost through the abuse of alcohol
and around UKP800m through the misuse of drugs.

Union leaders said that they favoured a "sensitive and non-judgemental"
approach to the problem.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski