Alcohol, Drugs & Employment is the new edition of the popular Alcohol, Employment & Fair Labour Practice. Like its predecessor, this book is a practical guide for labour lawyers, employers, trade unions, HR managers and occupational health professionals who must grapple with the problems of substance abuse in the workplace. 

Alcohol, Drugs & Employment explains the case law on substance abuse in South Africa and also provides a useful international legal comparison. The book recommends procedures for identifying, controlling and treating substance abuse. It includes templates and procedural guidelines for pre-employment testing, employee testing and fair disciplinary action.  Alcohol, Drugs & Employment also sets out the procedure for introducing and implementing a comprehensive substance-abuse policy in the workplace.

Key Benefits

• Presents both medical and legal perspectives on substance abuse in the workplace
• Provides useful guidelines on lawful medical testing of job applicants and employees
• Contains practical guidelines, protocols and policy templates 
• Assists employers and trade unions to introduce and implement workplace policies on substance abuse
• Contains a useful international perspective by way of comparison with Canadian workplace law

• A framework for analysing alcohol problems in the workplace

• The extent of the problem – alcohol

• Drugs and drug abuse – an introduction

• Extent of the problem – drugs

• Causes of the problem – psychosocial, environmental and cultural

• The risk assessment approach: managing alcohol and drug misuse within the organisation

• The effects of alcohol on the individual

• The effects of drugs 

• Objective ways of identifying trends of substance abuse problems in the workplace

• Legal obligations of employees, employers and trade unions

• Testing – identifying alcohol and drug problems and intoxication in the individual employee

• Legal aspects of pre-employment screening

• Legal aspects of testing employees

• Fair discipline

• The role of the occupational health professional

• Treatment – the employee patient

• Treatment of the organisation

• Treatment – employee assistance programmes

• The workplace as a setting for substance abuse prevention initiatives

• Introducing new alcohol and drug procedures and rules

• Proposed substance abuse policy and procedural agreement

• Appendixes
  - Protocol for breathalyser testing
  - Protocol for blood testing
  - Questionnaires used to screen for alcohol and drug misuse
  - Protocol for urine testing
  - Units and formulae
  - Example of a letter to non-unionised employees regarding the introduction of an updated alcohol and drugs policy
  - Glossary of medical terms
  - Strategy for managing alcohol and drug problems
  - Verification of alcohol intoxication form
  - Verification of drug intoxication form
  - Alternative alcohol and drug policy
  - Table of symptoms and signs of alcohol and drug problems

• Labour lawyers
• Employers
• Trade unions
• HR managers
• Occupational health professionals