Drinking At Work

A man worked for a council in London for a number of years.  In January 2006, he was caught drinking at work. His manager investigated the incident and the employee said that he thought he might be an alcoholic. He was told that drinking at work was a serious disciplinary offence (which it is) but that disciplinary proceedings would be put on hold if he agreed to see an Occupational Health Professional.

Initially he said that he wanted to try and stop drinking on his own, however, he did co-operate with Occupational Health to a certain extent when it was made clear that he would have to, to keep his job.

In March 2006, he was given a final written warning for drinking at work. Four weeks later he was found to be drunk at work. He was suspended, an investigation launched and, in the event, he was sacked and his subsequent appeal failed.

Looks a bit like a fair dismissal to me. Final warning for drinking at work and then drunk again at work within four weeks.

However, the Council lost; the dismissal was unfair. The reasons; the council had an alcohol policy and it had not circulated it to all its staff including the Claimant and key individuals responsible for his suspension; he had not been told exactly what he needed to do in terms of getting treatment for his alcoholism to keep his job.

Deductions were made from his compensation, including a 25% reduction for contributory fault, which means that his own behaviour was part of the reason he lost his job.

The man appealed saying this wasn’t fair, the Council appealed saying it wasn’t a big enough deduction.

The council won on this point; the Employment Appeal Tribunal said that “it cannot be said that totally unacceptable conduct … can be excused by reference to a background of underlying illness”.

The lessons for employees; if you have gone to the trouble of producing policies make sure everyone who should know about them, does.

The lesson for employees; don’t drink at work.

Published 13/11/2007. The author of this article is Jon Loney