Employees with Drink Problems

Question: My family business is a medium sized garden centre in Cornwall, specialising in tropical plants. I am the general manager and in charge of all the staff. I have one particular employee that I think has a drink problem and I am concerned that he might be an alcoholic. He is off work sick fairly often and often comes in late, looking terrible. Can I just sack him for this or do I need to be careful? I know that because of employment laws you have to be careful when you sack people now.

Answer: The action you can take depends on whether your employee is off sick, late for work or looking terrible because he is hung over or because his drinking has done more permanent damage to his health. You need to talk to him first to find out exactly what the problem is and to ask him directly whether he has any health problems that you should know about.

If it is purely because he has a raging social life and has been coming into work worse for wear, you would have good grounds to sack him. Be careful though, if he has been working with you for more than a year to follow all your disciplinary procedures before you actually sack him (such as considering giving him a warning first) else he could bring a claim for unfair dismissal against you.

If drinking has done more permanent damage to his health, such as giving him liver disease or depression, he may be considered ‘disabled’ and protected by the Disability Discrimination Act. This was determined by the recent case of Power v Panasonic UK Ltd. If so, you should not sack him without taking legal advice as have a duty to ensure that he does not suffer a detriment due to his disability and may have to take steps to accommodate him within your work place.