Employers will be able to check their employees’ sobriety | PRO HR January 2021

2021.01.13

The Ministry of Development, Labour and Technology has advised the Commissioner for Human Rights of the work being done on the bill to regulate the issue of introducing preventive employee checks to test for the presence of alcohol or substances that act similarly.

This bill is currently in the pre-legislative phase with work underway inside the ministry. The Ministry is collaborating with the Personal Data Protection Office to define the purposes for an employer to process data on the presence of alcohol or other substances. 

The information the Ministry has forwarded to the Commissioner for Human Rights indicates that this law will cover two types of situations. 

The first one will be to enable employers (provided that certain conditions yet to be defined are satisfied) to conduct preventive checks of employees. 

Moreover, this law will specify two procedures for not allowing an employee in a state of intoxication with alcohol or some other substance to begin work during working time:
  • on the basis of an employer’s justified suspicion – in reference to employees who have not been checked (if an employer has not introduced such a check and if the employees do not satisfy the statutory prerequisites to be subject to such a check);
  • as a result of introducing a preventive check and obtaining an outcome indicating that an employee is in a state of intoxication with alcohol or some other substance.

How the group of employees meeting the statutory prerequisites for being subject to a check will be crucial for this law. If it is defined too narrowly, then this regulation may be illusory in nature.

Find more in the PRO HR January 2021.