Each year, drugs and alcohol cost British businesses around 17 million working days and more than £6bn in lost productivity. In the construction sector alone alcohol misuse is estimated to affect 90% of construction firms.
Meanwhile, with around a third of employees admitting to being hung-over at work and 15% confessing to have been drunk in the workplace, it’s no surprise that alcohol is a factor in up to one in four workplace accidents.
Suzannah Robin, AlcoDigital sales and training director, said: ‘In the UK there is no legal requirement for employing organisations to implement alcohol policies, however health and safety at work legislation requires both employers and employees to maintain a safe working environment.’
She added: ‘We would like to encourage employers to adopt a contract clause for random testing. With this in place it forms basic consent agreement for the employee and may make staff more wary of consuming large amounts of alcohol before entering the workplace.’
