EUROPEAN NATIONS TO JOIN FORCES IN FIGHTING DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE AT WORK
Press Release
SOC/NAR/799
EUROPEAN NATIONS TO JOIN FORCES IN FIGHTING DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE AT WORK
19990505 (Reissued as received.)VIENNA, 5 May (UN Information Service) -- A cooperative strategy to prevent drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace will be the major focus of a conference from 9 to 12 May in Sundsvall, Sweden, which will be attended by about 200 representatives of business, government and labour from across Europe.
The strategy -- to be drawn up at the Fourth International Private Sector Conference on Drugs in the Workplace and the Community -- will aim to promote quality and safety at work, improve cooperation between business and the community and educate tomorrow's work force. The Sundsvall meeting has been dubbed "Working Together in Europe".
The conference, jointly organized by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Swedish Council for Alcohol and Narcotic Matters (ALNA) and a network of private and public sector enterprises in Sundsvall, hopes to set up a network of business partners and community leaders to promote drug and alcohol prevention in European workplaces and communities.
Studies have shown that 20-25 per cent of accidents at work and up to 30 per cent of on-the-job fatalities are linked to drugs and alcohol. Employees with drug and alcohol dependencies claim up to three times as many sickness benefits and file five times as many workman's compensation claims as workers without these problems.
Prevention programmes following methodologies emerging from a series of conferences on drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace are already showing substantial benefits for both employers and employees. These include improved worker health, higher productivity, greater quality control and increased profits. Hidden financial costs linked to alcohol and drug use, such as lost productivity, compensation claims and lost business opportunities, have also been avoided.
Three previous conferences on the same topic were held in Seville, Spain (October 1993) for Europe and North America; Porto Alegre, Brazil (April 1995) for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (October 1997) for Asia. * *** *