Chamber, KEDC host breakfast to talk about substance abuse in the workplace

Connie Hagen, president of Drug and Alcohol Testing of East Texas, and Andy Garr, right, also representing DATET, Tuesday recognized Mike Wilcox and Greg Industrial (center) for his company's policy on drug and alcohol testing. "We spend, in the United States, $183,340 every minute for alcoholic beverages--that's $10.9 million an hour." said Connie Hagen, president of Drug and Alcohol Testing of East Texas (DATET). She was speaking on establishing and maintaining a drug free workplace.

The Kilgore Chamber of Commerce and The Kilgore Economic Development corporation sponsored a 'Drug Free Workplace' breakfast seminar presented by Hagan's firm. She has 17 years of experience in drug and alcohol testing and substance abuse education.

During the morning's discussion titled 'Save Lives and Money Protect Your Business' Hagen reported that Texas has surpassed California as the largest exporter in the nation and is a gateway to trade with Latin America, doing 75percent of the nation's trade with Mexico, and opening a portal for drug traffic.

Hagan's report showed that 75 percent of drug users are employed and have 16 times as many accidents as sober coworkers. She also said workers who are drug or alcohol dependent are three times more likely to call in sick, have eight times the hospital visits, five times more likely to file a worker's compensation claim. Of workers under the influence, 60 percent will sell drugs to other employees and 40 percent will steal from the company. The average cost to any given company with a substance-abusing employee is $11,000.

"There is a human side to the problem as well," Hagen said. "These people suffer health damage, loss of affection and respect with in their family."

Hagan explained that injuries may result when employees are working with impaired coworkers; innocent, sober coworkers may be maimed or killed.

After Hagen presented the reasons to build and active drug free policy she presented the manner in which to do it.

"Each employee should be handed a copy of the drug policy and the policy should be signed by each employee," she said. "It is extremely important that the policy is understood by all employees."

Hagen recommends training supervisors on indicators of drug and alcohol abuse and

providing employee education on prohibited behaviors to ensure quality control.

"Every employer should have an employee assistance program and provide helpline numbers, where they can call for information on drugs and alcohol and their effects, assessable to all employees," Hagen said. "Every employer should also inform employees of disciplinary action resulting from drug abuse, the types of testing that will be performed (random, pre-employment, post-accident, return to duty, base line or periodic).

Hagen said a good policy will include threshold cut-off levels, definition of a violation, whether there will be searches and what acceptable levels are.

Hagen said one would not believe the number of cases where a company has lost in a unemployment benefit suit because company policy was not stated specifically or correctly.

"Do it right or don't do it at all," she said. "Following guidelines will take your policy to the supreme court."

Following the seminar Hagen presented a certificate of award to Mike Wilcox, president of Gregg Industrial Services for long-time and continued use of an active drug policy.