A Lecturer with the University of Jos, Dr Sesan Peter, has advocated for the establishment of Substance Abuse Testing Mechanism at employment points for testing of prospective employees.
The Don said this would stem the tide of substance abuse in workplaces.
Peter, who is with the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies, University of Jos, made the call on Thursday at a 4-Day Workshop organised by Zishiya Empowerment Foundation in conjunction with the Plateau State Local Government Service Commission.
The workshop was on the management of substance Abuse in Work Place, challenges and prospects, and was held at Sarau Event Center, Jos.
In his paper titled: “Challenges of Substance and its Impact on WorkPlace”, Peter said, “One way to minimise employees with a substance abuse problem is to establish substance abuse testing mechanism at entry points.”
“A test that can be administered is the pre-employment test by both public and Private organizations, which will make this test a requirement for employment.
“This will certainly eliminate any people that have a substance abuse problem and give room for only clean and capable candidates to gain employment in any organization for optimal productivity, ” he explained.
The lecturer further said, “in order to maintain a drug or alcohol free environment, an employer can select to perform random drug testing on employees.”
According to him, an employer does not have to be suspicious of substance abuse in order to submit an employee to random testing as long as it is part of the written policy.
“In the case that an employer has reasonable suspicion that an employee has a substance abuse problem they can request that the employee be tested,” he said.
Peter noted that Drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace represented a great risk to employee’s health and safety saying, more than 50 per cent of the employees worldwide were related to easily accessible drug abuse, while 70 per cent of the employees were related to alcohol abuse in the workplace.
He disclosed that the use and abuse of substances occurred for a number of reasons, including misguided ones, such as a person trying to “forget problems” at home, socially or at work.
“In relation to work, the effects are enormous, such as employee absenteeism, workplace injuries, as well as damage to expensive workplace equipment and property,” he said.