{"id":1620,"date":"2022-07-11T15:26:44","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T13:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arachne.co.za\/absolutehr.co.za\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2022-07-11T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T13:26:44","slug":"what-to-do-if-your-employee-is-drunk-on-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arachne.co.za\/absolutehr.co.za\/what-to-do-if-your-employee-is-drunk-on-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do if your employee is drunk on duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of your employees at work is acting strangely. His behaviour\u2019s not normal. He\u2019s staggering around a bit and talking loudly.<\/p>\n

The employee is a forklift driver. He has to be absolutely sober to do his job. He cannot under any circumstances endanger anyone else\u2019s lives when doing his job (not like for instance the office cleaner).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DRUNK\u00a0 –\u00a0 What next?<\/strong>You have a no tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol at work. And the employees know this.<\/p>\n

You go and investigate. When you approach him you get this unmistakable \u2018whiff of alcohol\u2019.<\/p>\n

You ask him if he\u2019s been drinking\u2026He denies it.<\/p>\n

You can see he\u2019s clearly drunk on duty. And it\u2019s not the first time you\u2019ve caught him like this. The last time was a few months ago. You spoke to him about it. He said that he didn\u2019t have a drinking problem and that it wouldn\u2019t happen again. He\u2019s generally a good employee, so you\u2019re really \u2018hacked off\u2019. (By the way, if the employee admits to having a drinking problem … READ HERE<\/a>)<\/p>\n

But, what do you do?<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have a breathalyzer kit. And even if you did, the employee would no doubt refuse to blow. In this country, you can\u2019t even force him to take the test without his approval.<\/p>\n

How then do you show that he\u2019s under the influence of alcohol at work and be able to discipline the employee?<\/h6>\n

In a CCMA case similar to this, an employee was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing for being under the influence of alcohol at work.<\/p>\n

The company said that they had noticed that the employee was unsteady on his feet, with slurred speech and a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. And therefore deemed him to be \u2018drunk\u2019.<\/p>\n

A witness stated that \u201cit was clear that the employee was under the influence of alcohol\u201d as he was unsteady on his feet and staggered while walking.<\/p>\n

The employee merely denied that he was under the influence of alcohol.<\/p>\n

The CCMA commissioner could find no reason why the company would have fabricated its evidence; neither could the employee provide motivation why the company would do this.<\/p>\n

The commissioner said that the two bits of evidence from the company corroborated one another and that it was therefore \u201cprobable that the employee was drunk on the day in question\u201d.<\/p>\n

The dismissal was held to be fair.<\/p>\n

(Bongani Gumede v Melmoth Cartage CCMA Arbitration KN201203)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes you may be faced with a similar problem.<\/h6>\n

Where you don\u2019t have a breathalyzer kit and you have an employee who you suspect is under the influence of alcohol at work.<\/p>\n

My suggestion is to do the following investigation:<\/p>\n