Worker responsibilities
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012, a worker has a duty to take care of your own health and safety and not put others at risk.
What You Should Do
- Do not use alcohol or drugs at work.
- The only exception is prescription medication for legitimate medical reasons.
- Check with your doctor about how any medication might affect your ability to work safely.
- Tell your manager if your medication could make you unsafe at work; they may adjust your duties.
Your Legal Duties
- Make sure any alcohol or drug use outside work hours does not affect your fitness for work
- Be fit for duty, and do not come to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Follow your workplace’s drug and alcohol policy
- Speak up and talk to your manager or health and safety representatives if you think one of your co-workers is impaired,
Employer responsibilities
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012, as a PCBU, the employer has the primary duty of care to ensure the health and safety of everyone at your workplace. You must:
- determine if alcohol or drug use is occurring at work or if workers are arriving impaired.
- put controls in place to eliminate or reduce risks from alcohol and drug use steps you can take include:
- Create a clear alcohol and other drugs policy
- Include procedures for managing impairment and testing (where required)
- Prohibit the alcohol consumption in the workplace during work hours and clarify expectations for work-related events.
- Manage work functions responsibly
- Provide water and non-alcoholic options
- Limit free alcoholic drinks and encourage moderation.
- Address workplace factors that contribute to substance use, such as:
- long shifts, unreasonable workloads, or poor rosters
- bullying, harassment, or high stress or high stress levels.
- lack of supervision support
- consult with workers when making changes to rosters, workloads, or conflict resolution.
- Provide education and training which explains the risks of impairment and how to seek help
- Promote health choices
- Talk with the worker about ways to reduce any work-related stress that may be contributing to the issue. This could include adjusting job demands, offering flexible work arrangements or allowing time off for treatment. Where possible, consider assigning the worker to a role with lower safety risks.
