One minute it’s acceptable social drinking at a business function; the next, it’s unacceptable drunkenness embarrassing to the company. How do you deal with alcoholism?
By government estimates, nearly 14 million Americans abuse alcohol or are alcoholic, and millions more are close to being so. That means, odds are, some of them are working for you.
Fortunately, with support and treatment, many people are able to stop drinking and rebuild their lives. But how much does the company have to help?
What is alcoholism?
Alcoholism is a disease marked by these symptoms:
- Craving (a strong need or compulsion to drink),
- Loss of control (the inability to limit one’s drinking),
- Physical dependence (withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety occuring when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking), and
- Tolerance (the need to drink greater amounts of alcohol in order to “get high”).
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Is alcoholism a disability under the ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not contain a list of medical conditions that constitute disabilities. Instead, the ADA says a person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alcoholism is an impairment. Therefore, people with alcoholism who are substantially limited in a major life activity will have a disability under the ADA.
However, even if a person with alcoholism meets the definition of disability, an employer may discipline, discharge, or deny employment to an alcoholic whose current use of alcohol adversely affects job performance or conduct to the extent that he or she is not “qualified,” or if the person’s presence creates an “undue hardship” for the employer.
Does an employer have to allow use of alcohol at work as an accommodation?
No. The ADA specifically provides that an employer may prohibit the use of alcohol in the workplace and require that employees not be under the influence of alcohol.
Are tests for alcohol use considered medical tests under the ADA?
Yes. Blood, urine, and breath analyses to check for alcohol use are considered medical exams and, therefore, are subject to ADA limitations. According to the EEOC, an employer’s ability to make disability-related inquiries or require medical examinations is analyzed in three stages: pre-offer, post-offer, and employment.
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Pre-offer, the ADA prohibits all disability-related inquiries and medical examinations, even if they are related to the job.
Post-offer (after an applicant is given a conditional job offer, but before he or she starts work), an employer may make disability-related inquiries and conduct medical examinations, regardless of whether they are related to the job, as long as it does so for all entering employees in the same job category.
After employment begins, an employer may make disability-related inquiries and require medical examinations only if they are job-related and consistent with business necessity.
May an employer test an employee who has been off from work in an alcohol rehabilitation program?
Yes, according to the EEOC, but only if the employer has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that the employee will pose a direct threat in the absence of periodic testing. (Employers also may conduct periodic alcohol testing pursuant to “last chance” agreements.)
The determination of “reasonable belief of direct threat” requires individualized assessment of the employee and his or her position and cannot be based on general assumptions. One example might be a bus driver with only a few months’ experience who returns to work after 4 months of rehabilitation and counseling.
Given the safety risks associated with the bus driver’s position, his short period of employment, and recent completion of rehabilitation, the employer can likely show that it would be job-related and consistent with business necessity to subject the driver to frequent periodic alcohol tests.
However, take the same situation except that the worker is clerical. Now it is not likely that the employee poses a direct threat, so the employer probably cannot show that periodic alcohol testing would be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
In the next Advisor, we’ll look at specific accommodations for alcoholics, and introduce a resource for writing alcoholism policies (and all your other policies, too).
If an alcoholic employee is considered to be covered under the ADA, shouldn’t they also be required to notify the employer regarding their disability. What happens if it is discovered after employment has been offered. How can an employer make accomodations when they don’t know about the disability?
Employees with disabilities are not required to disclosed their disabilities. The fact that an employee has a disability is not necessarily relevant. The important issue is whether the disability prevents the employee from performing the essential functions of the position.
The employer is only required to make reasonable accommodations when the employee requests accommodations to enable him/her to perform one or more essential functions, or when the employer has other knowledge that a reasonable accommodation is needed.