An alarming number of companies in Cape Town are seeking help for employees who use - and in some cases even sell - drugs in the workplace.
The SA National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) in the Western Cape has reported that about 100 companies had approached it over the past three years.
And a local labour law firm says about half of the 1000 companies on its books reported an increase in drug use at work.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) says it has also noticed an alarming spike in the use of drugs at Cape Town businesses and has commissioned a study to gather figures and information about the extent of the problem in the Western Cape.
Nadine Harker-Burnhams, an MRC scientist in its alcohol and drug abuse research unit, is heading the unit’s two-year study into drug use and the workplace.
Harker-Burnhams, who is doing her doctoral thesis on the subject, said although several firms faced the dilemma of employee drug use, there were no official numbers and also no national guidelines for dealing with the problem. The problem was not confined to any specific sector or career, she said.
Tertius Cronje, Sanca’s corporate services director, said there was a “dangerous upswing” in the number of employees using drugs at work.
“More companies are asking for assistance. More employees are using drugs at work, and even selling them there, using the workplace as a marketplace.”
Peter Schultz, chairman of the SA Association of Social Workers in Private Practice, said he had worked with firms from six sectors that were dealing with employees who took and sold drugs at work. Schultz would not disclose the type of industries, but said they varied.
He said telltale signs of drug use were frequent bathroom breaks, frequent latecoming, unexplained ailments and generally erratic behaviour, where the employee seemed “out of control”.
Both organisations said senior managers were more likely to use tranquillisers or cocaine, call centre agents tended to use stimulants and employees in labour-intensive jobs favoured tik. Employees in the sales sector were more likely to drink at work, they said.
Cronje said: “You would seldom find managers using tik and employees in labour do not have the money for the more expensive drugs.”
The organisations said it was easier to detect when employees were smoking dagga or drinking at work, because these had distinct odours and the change in users’ behaviour was obvious.
Drugs such as tik, cocaine and heroin were harder to detect.
Schultz said people used drugs in bathrooms at work or, in the case of managers, in their own offices.
Harker-Burnham said employees would also use drugs during lunch breaks, or just before they got to the office each day. She said the food and retail sectors had reported a recent increase in dismissals relating to drug use at work. The industries would not disclose figures, she said.
The MRC had also noted that some referrals for patients admitted to treatment centres came from employers, Harker-Burnham said.
She said several factors led to people using drugs at work, including stress and working in high-risk environments, such as those involving hazardous chemicals.
Employees who felt they were receiving “little reward with high demand” were also more susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse, she said.
Her study is set to start in the next two months and will focus on measuring the extent of drug abuse in Western Cape workplaces, as well as testing “evidence-based” interventions.
Ironically, Schultz said, in the short-term, employees using drugs could seem more efficient and productive, but their performance would soon take a “nose-dive”.
Grant Jardine, from the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre, said companies had over the past three or four years become more aware of drug use in the workplace.
He said drug abuse was causing on-site accidents and contributed to high rates of absenteeism.
Advocate Lionel Harper, the head of the legal services department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said that in most cases companies could not force employees to undergo drug tests. They would first have to get an employee’s permission and that of the union.
“The employee cannot be compelled to undergo the test but refusal can lead to a negative inference. I would advise a policy on this matter so that the employees and unions are in agreement… because (substance abuse) impacts on the productivity and operations of the company and they are a danger and safety hazard to the employees.” - Cape Argus