The bill on amending the Act – the Labour Code and the Act on Sobriety Education and Anti-Alcoholism is to be adopted by the Council of Ministers in third quarter of this year.
The existing rules exclude random checks on the sobriety of workers. Although this was a common practice, there is no legal basis to justify it. The employee should himself wish to examine and agree to the processing of data in this respect. The project created by an interdisciplinary team, led by the Ombudsman of Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurs is to regulate this state of affairs.
The draft law amending the Act – the Labour Code and the Law on Sobriety Education and Anti-Addicting of Alcoholism aims at creating the basis for the employer to introduce and carry out, by reason of a legal purpose, preventive random checks on workers for the presence of alcohol or alcohol-like measures in their bodies.
In particular, the draft provides for amendments to the Labour Code consisting in particular of:
- the definition of the legal basis enabling the employer to introduce, by reason of a legitimate purpose, random checks on the sobriety of workers or checks on the presence of alcohol-like agents in their bodies, and the rules for such checks;
- as regards the employer's obligation to prevent the worker from doing his job:
(a) to maintain the regulation currently in force in the event of a reasonable suspicion that the worker has come to work in the state after using alcohol or consumed alcohol during work,
(b) the introduction of a regulation imposing such an obligation on the employer in the event of a reasonable suspicion that the worker has come to work in a state which, after using an alcohol-like agent, has taken such a measure during work,
(c) the introduction of a regulation imposing such an obligation on the employer where preventive sobriety checks show the presence of alcohol in the worker's body or preventive checks on the presence of an alcohol-like agent shall show the presence of such a measure in the worker's body.
- the identification of the grounds for the examination to establish the presence of alcohol or a measure acting similar to alcohol in the worker’s body by the competent authority appointed to protect public policy;
- introducing the possibility of appropriate application of the above-mentioned solutions to employers organising work performed by natural persons on a basis other than employment relations and self-employed persons;
- the addition of a list of grounds justifying the imposition on the worker of a penalty, reprimand or penalty for cases of return to work in a state which is similar to alcohol or of such a measure during work.
The draft also includes an amendment to the Act of 26 October 1982 about raising sober and preventing alcoholism (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 2277; of 2020, item 1492), repeal Article 17.
In the current wording, this provision specifically obliges the head of the establishment or the person authorised by him to prevent the worker from working, if there is a reasonable suspicion that he has appeared to work in the state after using alcohol or consumed alcohol during work.
It shall also form the basis for the employer or employee referred to above to require the competent authority appointed to protect public policy to carry out the sobriety test. This amendment is to transfer the regulation contained in this article to the Work Code in order to comprehensively regulate this problem in a single legal act.
As a result, it is expected to minimise the number of cases in which an employee would carry out the tasks assigned to him by the employer when he was able after using the substance or the measures adversely affecting his psychophysical performance. This should therefore have a positive impact on the safety of workers, others and the protection of employer's property.