Drug and Alcohol Testing in Public Job Sectors

Abstract

Alcohol and Drug abuse in the work place is a great challenge for the employers, colleagues and indirectly to the insurers, suppliers, clients and shareholders .Drug abuse refers to the use of banned substance for the non-medical purposes. According to national survey which was done in the year 2004, according to 75% of the drug abusers in United States are employed. This counts for around 12.5 million workers of that time. Drug and Alcohol free organization is the legal corporate responsibility and government should make sure that drug and alcohol use in the organizations are diminished. The implication of Drug and Alcohol abuse in large companies are significant, the productivity drops and the cost increases due to increased insurance premium and due to the hiring of part time workers to fill the gap. If the drug and Alcohol abuse is in small companies the result can be very serious, the company may lose its contract with large companies due to zero tolerance shown by them. Many companies are promoting the culture of not doing insurance for drug addicts and alcohol drinker. Thus the overall effect of Drugs and alcohol abuse in the work place is causing a serious damage to the economy of the country.

Drug and Alcohol Testing in Public Job Sectors

Introduction

On the August 29, 2007, a grease fire in the Roxbury killed two member of the Boston Fire department. According to the media reports the firefighter were under the influence of Alcohol and other drugs, thus when they responded to the news of the fire the dose proved to be lethal. (Blumenthal, Zezima 2007).This has increased the public demand that random drug testings to be made the part all job, if that not possible than at least the sensitive job should not be ignored. House bill 2210 -this bill authorizes the random drug and Alcohol testing of all the Public and private servants, assigned with the duty of safeguarding Interest within commonwealth. In US regulation is there which limits the use of Alcohol and Drugs for all workers performing safety jobs (ILO 1996).

This should be noted that not only the safety worker, but if other workers are drunken they can also be a cause of great concern for the Company. It should also be taken into consideration that on an average 500 million days are lost on due to drinking alcohol over the world. Around 10 to 30 % of the job related accidents are caused by drinkers and they have 2-4 times more chances of accidents (ILO 1996). To American economy alcohol and drug abuse causes an estimated 167 billion dollars to the state. Around 5% full time workers are dependent on alcohol and 1 % on the drugs. At least 12 % full time workers drink excessive who reports 5 or more occasion of binge drinking in the previous month. These numbers of usage have serious implication on the American economy; studies have shown that these types of workers file for ...