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3 Billion Dollars Worth of Booze
Absenteeism stemming from alcohol and drug use costs Australian companies $3 billion a year and a range of policies and practices should be implemented to help workers, research has found.
Actevate can include drug and alcohol screening in our Pre Employment Health Assessments across Australia. Our assessments are designed to identify health risks, inform employers of medical concerns and support recruitment decisions.
Australian employers should implement a range of special policies and practices to help deal with the “extremely high costs” of drug and alcohol-related absenteeism, researchers have recommended.
Research conducted by Flinders University, of the nearly 13,000 workers that took part in the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, found that absenteeism related to alcohol and other drugs (AOD) costs Australian companies $3 billion and is the cause of approximately 11.5 million missed working days a year.
The recent research found that 56.1% had low-risk levels of four or fewer standard drinks on a single occasion, while 26.6% were considered risky at five to ten standard drinks, and 9.3% fell into high risk levels of over eleven drinks per occasion, OHSAlert.com.au reported.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, researchers found that absence rates increased with riskier or more frequent consumption of alcohol as almost 9% of high-risk drinkers reported missing at least one day of work due to drinking, compared with jus t 0.5% of low-risk drinkers.
"Workplaces wishing to reduce the substantial impost associated with AOD-related absenteeism are advised to implement evidence-based strategies to promote healthy employee behaviour," the researchers said.
The study also found that 5.4% of workers used illicit drugs weekly, 2.9% monthly and 7.3% on a yearly basis.
"Rates of absence due to illicit drug use ranged from 0.1 per cent (lifetime users) to 3.5 per cent (weekly users)," researchers continued, according to OHSAlert.com.au.
"These results demonstrate the extremely high costs associated with alcohol and drug-related absenteeism in Australia."
"In particular, they highlight the amount of absence attributable to infrequent drug users."
Contact Actevate on 1300 663 155 to enquire about Pre Employment Assessments and Random Drug and Alcohol Screening for your company. Tweet