Agenda item

Councillor Marshall, Portfolio Holder for Environmental, Sustainability and Regulatory Services introduced the Alcohol Policy report and said that it supplements the existing Alcohol, Substance misuse policy. The previous Alcohol, Substance misuse policy was last looked at in 2012 and relates to where such substances affect the employee’s behaviour or work and could constitute gross misconduct. The policy makes it clear that if the misuse affects what the employee is doing in their work or behaviour, then it can be undertaken by the conduct and capability procedures.

The policy has the support of the Union Representatives at Dacorum Borough Council and it enables initial testing by officers that have the expertise to administer the test. If the test proved positive, then it would be further tested by an outside organisation.

Councillor Silwal arrived at 7.45pm

Questions:

Councillor Ashbourn asked if there was an intention to have a 0% intolerance policy in place in the workplace.

P O’Day - Environmental Health Officer mentioned that there had been major discussions at the Health and Safety Committee and CMT. The officer confirmed that drugs has been put to one side as they felt that it would be easier to deal with alcohol first as people can be breath tested. Once that has been embedded they will look at substance abuse.

C Troy - Group Manager for Regulatory Services, reiterated that there had been some discussions around the 0% tolerance policy however decided to look at this at a much later stage.

Councillor Ashbourn referred to the random testing and asked what the frequency of the testing would be.

C Troy replied that it possibly would be a one off testing potentially twice a year however they will need to look at how that will be implemented. The idea of this particular proposal was to get in principle the idea of random testing.

Councillor Ashbourn asked if there are any targets put in place from when the internal officers and external officers take the take from the individual.

P O’Day said that internal staff would be on standby to be at site within the hour and external staff to be at site within 2 hours.

Councillor Barnes referred to an employee being drunk at work and what the procedure would be.

C Troy confirmed that the manager would need to rely on the current policy in place which has no objective testing at present and would need to be referred to HR for further consultation.

Councillor Barnes asked what disciplinary action would be taken if an employee was considered to have drink on them whilst at work.

M Rawdon added that if the Manager felt that the individual was unfit to work they would send them home. It would then be the Managers right to commence disciplinary action against that individual. The Policy suggested it will take that element of judgement away from the Manager and give them an objective view on the situation.

Councillor Barnes asked if this policy would apply to all Council staff.

P O’Day explained to Members that the policy would apply to all Council staff, not just the safety critical staff.

Councillor Tindall said that it was encouraging to hear that this policy would be applied to all staff within the Council as well as Senior Management.

The Chair referred to page 21 1.3 and voiced his concerns on the objective testing regime. He suggested that it may be better to target a specific area such as Cupid Green where there is a danger to the public.

P O’Day explained that if once specific area of employees such as Cupid Green staff were targeted it would go against the policy which they are proposing and looking at the Council across the board.

Councillor Birnie said that he applauded the request coming from Cupid Green for the testing.

Councillor Harden arrived at 7.50pm

Councillor Douris said that he was interested to hear that the initial request for testing came from the Cupid Green Team and said that he agreed with the suggestion that the testing should reflect all staff across the Council and not just target one particular area.

Councillor Taylor said that it was important to have the random testing in place as it acts as a deterrent and he applauded the policy proposed by the officers.

Councillor E Collins made a comment that women have less tolerance to alcohol than men and suggested that this may need to be looked at within the policy.

Councillor Barnes asked what action would be taken against an individual once it has been processed to HR.

M Rawdon explained that it would depend on a number of factors such as; the severity of the alcohol test failings, the individual’s role, previous alcohol issues and the individual’s mitigation. 

Councillor Douris asked if the officers had completed an impact equalities impact assessment, if not suggested that they do so.

C Troy explained that an impact equalities assessment had not been completed as of yet due as they were unsure if the proposal would be accepted or not.

The Portfolio Holder thanked Members for all of their comments and suggestions.

Outcome:

Members noted the report.