drink driving

Anonymous

You may interested in an insurance market discussion regarding the mixing of alcohol with employees.

This follows the criminal conviction of a private couple in France for plying a dinner guest with alcohol with the knowledge he had to drive home afterwards. The guest proceeded home in an unfit to drive state, drove the wrong way down a slip road onto a motorway causing a head on collision killing himself an 4 other people. The dinner hosts were convicted of the equivalent of an "aiding and abetting" charge.

There are obvious applications of this scenario in the work place such as client entertaining and company conferances at more remote locations. However, this can be taken further and include office parties at xmas. Whilst an employee can not avoid his duty under health and safety legislation, there remains a risk to the employer in these circumstances for aiding and abetting, for breach of H & S legislation or even corporate manslaughter.

This risk can be managed via the drugs and alcohol policy if it is extended to include the sort of out-of-office situations employees may find themselves. Provided there is an audit trail showing the alcohol policy has been implemented rather than paid lip service to, employers should have little to fear in the event of an accident.

Gillian Nightingale
Member - 175 posts

Hello Harry

My apologies for the delay in responding. We have asked several of our panel members about this issue, as it covers several aspects of employers' liability:

1. The moral duty - essentially to advise/remind employees of appropriate behaviour where civil law is concerned - ultimately, and regardless of any legal comeback to the company the employee may face individual prosecution/fines/driving ban if they are found to be over the legal limit. It's likely that if an incident occurred, and the HSE felt the company had a duty in which they are deemed to have failed, a subsequent corporate prosecution would be unlikely to completely absolve the individual's responsibility.

2. The legal duty - is there any legal accountability regarding the employers duty of care outside of 'work'.

1. Moral Duty

Definitely as part of the general communication and advice offered to employees you should consider reminding employees about the law as well as the Police/AA etc stand point that the only safe amount of alcohol to consume if you intend to drive is zero. If employers want to avoid any suggestions of duel standards (i.e. inviting employees to a party, serving alcohol and then saying don't drink & drive) then perhaps consideration can be given to some of the following ideas:

- Supply transport i.e. coaches

- Negotiate premium discounted accommodation rates on behalf of employees at the venue or hotels close to the venue. Good rates offered with sufficient notice are often well received and in my experience there is usually a good up-take.

- Encourage car sharing (perhaps offer an incentive to the driver?)

- Avoid having a free bar. Free alcohol usually entices people to consume more than they may otherwise. As a secondary concern it also has a serious impact on the cost of the party.

2. Legal Duty

We have asked another lawyer on our online advice panel about this, and I will forward to you their comments as soon as I have them.

Meanwhile, another of our panel members offered the following advice based on an off-site incident they had experience of:

"Employees on training/team building course. 2 days away from office/home with hotel accommodation/subsistence provided at company expense. Employee tripped over in hotel room over night (sober) and broke hip. There was no prosecution as the entire incident was handled very well and between the company and the hotel all correct duties had been fulfilled. However in respect of support to the employee the Employer was fully accountable as the employee was only at the hotel because the company requested their presence as demonstrated by the 'work' activity during the day and the fact the entire event was fully funded. Although the evening was social time the person concerned would not have been at the hotel had it not been for the directly work related training course. The hotel also was fully involved as the person was a guest.

How this compares to the social event? First the party is a purely voluntary act - there is not an assumed expectation that the employee must attend. Whilst alcohol may be available the consumption is equally voluntary. If employee has to pay for alcohol then it presumably can be demonstrated that its consumption was a wilful act because direct effort has to be made to obtain, purchase and consume the alcohol. If the employer has done everything reasonably practicable to 'instruct and inform' the employee prior the event, reminding them of safety, the law etc and can demonstrate that this has been communicated to all guests reasnably in advance (i.e. email log?) then I struggle to see that the HSE could bring a successful prosecution if someone consumes too much alcohol, drives and finds themselves under investigation.

Surely this comes under the employees own duty of care to themselves and others? Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, sections 7 and 8, every employee has a duty to: ?ensure the health, safety and welfare of themselves and others whilst at work? - if the employer can be prosecuted for failing in their duty of care to protect the safety of an employee in this social situation then presumably the law sees this event as an extension of the 'work' area in which case surely the employees legal responsibilities to follow company guidelines/protect themselves etc should also extend to the event?"

Essentially the issue is proabbly one of extending the company's moral duty to inform, advise, make alternative suggestions etc available to employees in good time before the event. But I will get back to you with any other views on how the HSE might view the social event in context of the HSAW Act 1974.