SEMINARS ON DRUGS AND ALCOHOL IN THE WORKPLACE

A series of seminars which will focus on ‘Drugs and Alcohol at Work – Managing Reasonable Suspicion’ will be hosted by the EAP Institute over the coming months in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Maurice Quinlan, Director of the EAP Institute, and Duncan Carmichael, UK Sales Manager at AgriYork 400Ltd, will present one-day seminars at the following venues:

  • Wednesday 18 September 2019, Clayton Hotel, Dublin (9.30am-5pm)  
  • Thursday 14 November 2019, The Kingsley Hotel, Cork (9.30am-5pm)  
  • Thursday 13 February 2020, Limerick Strand Hotel (9.30am-5pm)  
  • Thursday 5 March 2020, Clayton Hotel, Galway (9.30am-5pm)  

Under Section 13(1)b the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 all employees must ensure that they are not under the influence of an intoxicant (defined as drugs and alcohol) to the extent that he or she is in such a state as to endanger his or her own safety, health or welfare at work or that of any other person.

Information guidelines provided by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) note that from a health and safety perspective, companies need to be confident that employees are not a risk to themselves or others, and if managers perceive there is a risk action should be taken to remove the employee from the risk.

According to EAP Institute Director Maurice Quinlan, employee drug testing in Ireland evolved from US multinational companies who had facilities in Ireland. “A proposal to conduct employee drug testing was contained in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, but no regulations were introduced. The trend is for safety-critical industries such as air, sea and transportation to introduce testing. Safety critical tasks should be identified before any testing takes place,” he noted.

CLICK HERE for further details and online bookings.