Regulatory Advice - Managing the risks of employees impaired by alcohol and other drugs

Note: This information is intended to provide general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. We encourage you to obtain independent advice about your legal obligations.

This regulatory advice provides guidance on managing the risks associated with alcohol and other drug use impairment in the workplace.

picture is of a glass of whiskey with a set of vehicle keys next to it

Who is this advice for?

What are the hazards and risks?

Impairment from alcohol and other drugs (including prescribed and over-the-counter medications) can adversely affect a person’s ability to work safely and can present serious safety risks to individuals, work colleagues, other road users and the general public. 

An impaired worker also has the potential to impact on a business’s ability to meet its statutory obligations both under the HVNL and other laws such as workplace health and safety legislation.

The potential risks resulting from these hazards may include:

  • risks to the safety and wellbeing of employees and the public
  • risks of damage to infrastructure (including business owned and public infrastructure)
  • financial risks because of disruption to business operations.

Why is it important to manage safety risks?

An employee's fitness for duty is fundamental to safety. It’s also a critical factor in a business ensuring the safety of its transport activities↓. Effective management of alcohol and other drugs should be a foundation of any fitness for duty program. 

A business may suffer significant reputational damage if alcohol or other drugs are found to be a cause of a heavy vehicle crash or other safety-related incident. However, effective and ongoing management of these safety risks can position a business as an employer and contractor of choice.

Undertaking positive steps to manage safety risks will assist parties in the CoR and their executives to keep employees and the community safe and avoid regulatory sanctions.

Who has a duty to manage safety risks?

At a minimum, parties in the CoR should undergo a risk assessment to consider the risks associated with impaired workers. Executives should be aware of – and endorse or approve - the final risk assessment, identifying what controls are needed to mitigate those risks.

Executives must ensure sufficient financial, human and other resources are available to the business to implement risk controls. They should also be actively invested in monitoring tasks to assess the ongoing effectiveness of the controls and promote continuous improvement of safe business practices.

How can I manage these risks?

Best practice is to adopt a proactive approach to risk management rather than reacting after an incident has occurred. All CoR parties must proactively manage the risks they can control and influence to meet their primary duty to ensure the safety of their transport activities.

Controls to manage the risk of workers undertaking transport activities being impaired by alcohol and other drugs will often form part of an overarching alcohol and other drugs management plan. Such a plan may include:

  • developing policies and supporting procedures outlining how to deal with alcohol and other drug impairment in the workplace
  • communicating these policies and procedures on alcohol and other drug usage, related issues, and general safety expectations
  • providing information, education, and training to employees on how to identify signs of alcohol and other drug impairment and how to manage the situation when impairment is detected
  • implementing safeguards on tasks, processes, and equipment that require a high level of concentration or motor coordination, where a hazard identification and risk assessment identifies a high level of risk if employees are impaired
  • providing access to employee assistance programs, counselling and support groups early in the apparent development of alcohol and/or other drug use problems
  • encouraging parties in the CoR and their executives to support policies and procedures
  • engaging with businesses who have a good safety and compliance reputation
  • ensuring that contractual provisions clearly communicate fit for work and HVNL compliance requirements
  • implementing an alcohol and drug screening program which may include pre-employment, random or targeted testing based on reasonable suspicion or following an accident or incident
  • not incentivising behaviour that could promote or encourage the inappropriate use of drugs or alcohol. For example, encouraging drivers to take substances to overcome the effects of fatigue
  • ensuring that contracts can be terminated if the minimum safety requirements are not complied with.

Fitness to drive

Managing the risk of drivers not been fit to operate a heavy vehicle and safely conduct other associated transport activities should be approached holistically. It’s important to consider a range of factors including physical health, mental health, and fatigue. More information and specific advice on fitness to drive can be found here:

Resources

Master Code

Guidance and direction on how to effectively introduce a risk management process within your business can be found in Section 3 of the Master Code. 

Safety Management System (SMS)

Management of safety risks can be more effective with the adoption, development and active use of a Safety Management System (SMS).

An SMS can help you:

  • provide a safer work environment for your employees, customers, contractors and the public
  • manage your safety duties under the HVNL
  • demonstrate your ability to manage risk and ensure safety
  • become an employer of choice and preferred supplier to customers
  • make informed decisions and increase efficiency
  • allocate resources to the most critical areas that have an impact on safety
  • reduce costs associated with incidents and accidents.

Regardless of the size of a business, an effective SMS can help your business have an appropriate safety focus and comply with its duty to ensure the safety of its transport activities.

Structured information and resources including quick-guide documents, templates, worked examples and toolbox talks to guide you through each step of developing an SMS, implementing it with your management and staff, and extracting safety are available in the 9 Step SMS Roadmap.

Understand the HVNL and your primary duty

Under the HVNL section 26C, each party in the CoR has a primary duty to ensure the safety of its transport activities, so far as is reasonably practicable. This duty includes an obligation to eliminate or minimise public risks and a prohibition against directly or indirectly causing or encouraging a driver or another person, including a party in the CoR, to contravene the HVNL.

Transport activities

Transport activities include all the activities associated with the use of a heavy vehicle on a road. It includes safety systems, business processes such as contract negotiation and communication and decision making, as well as the activities normally associated with the transport and logistics sector such as training, scheduling, route planning, managing premises, selecting and maintaining vehicles, packing, loading and unloading.

So far as is reasonably practicable

So far as is reasonably practicable means an action that can reasonably be done in relation to the duty, considering relevant matters such as:

  • the likelihood of a safety risk or damage to road infrastructure
  • the harm that could result from the risk or damage
  • what the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the risk or damage
  • what the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the ways of removing or minimising the risk, or preventing or minimising the damage
  • the availability and suitability of those ways
  • the cost associated with the available ways, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the likelihood of the risk or damage.

More information can be found in Regulatory Advice - Reasonably practicable.

Executives of businesses that are parties in the CoR have a distinct duty under the HVNL section 26D to exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its duty to ensure the safety of its transport activities.

Due diligence

Exercising due diligence includes taking reasonable steps to:

  • acquire and maintain knowledge about conducting transport activities safely
  • understand the nature of the business’s transport activities, including the hazards and risks associated with those activities
  • ensure the business has, and uses, appropriate resources to eliminate or minimise the hazards and risks associated with its transport activities
  • ensure the business has, and uses, processes to eliminate or minimise the hazards and risks associated with its transport activities and that information about hazards, risks and incidents is received, considered and responded to in a timely way.

Executive due diligence

Examples of executive due diligence activities include:

  • collecting information about incident rates to see if the safety management plan is working
  • participating in industry-led forums and safety seminars
  • ensuring work procedures are being followed and result in improvements in safety
  • ensuring safety incidents are responded to and investigated
  • implementing learnings from the investigation of safety incidents
  • ensuring that sufficient resources are allocated to enable implementation and management of the business’s risk management activities.

THIS DOCUMENT IS UNCONTROLLED IN HARD COPY FORMAT