Unions want employers
to help in isle drug fightOfficials discourage workplace
practices that do not offer
treatment to workers
Two top union officials told lawmakers yesterday that the state's private employers need to be part of a drug abuse solution, if only to save themselves money in the long run.
Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, and Harold Dias, president of the state AFL-CIO and business manager and financial secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1357, testified before the Joint House-Senate Task Force on Ice and Drug Abatement.
The typical "two strikes" drug policy at most companies is structured in a way for the employee to fail, Dias said.
This is especially true for crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," users who are referred to treatment programs that unrealistically assume the employee can go "cold turkey" and terminates the employee when they can't, he said.
The company then faces the costs of hiring and training new workers instead of rehiring the rehabilitated employee, Dias said.
Gill said drug addiction is an illness that needs to be approached from a medical and social perspective and not a punitive perspective.
The union may ask employers to support a substance abuse treatment fund as part of the union's existing health care fund, Gill said.
Gill also supported legislation to give drug abuse treatment parity in health insurance coverage with medical and mental illness ailments.
Chuck Kelley, director of sales at Outrigger Enterprises, said employers must balance their desire to assist employees with drug problems and the responsibility to maintain a safe environment for other employees and customers.
"We want the work environment where employees can admit mistakes, learn from their mistakes, receive treatment or help if needed to solve problems and grow," he said. "If this approach is taken to the extreme, however, if companies are too soft, drug users will take over the workplace."
Outrigger has a pre-employment drug screening, drug education programs, drug testing and confidential assistance programs for employees with drug abuse problems, and medical benefits for rehabilitation programs, he said.
However, employees who steal, threaten or deal drugs on the property are fired "even if an employee's judgment is clouded by drugs," he said.
Kelley said it's unfortunate that when it comes to ice, most users "need to bottom out, most need to lose their jobs, lose their families, lose all of their financial resources before they are willing to come forward and address the problem.
"This is unfortunate, because if they were to seek help while they are still employed they would find many resources available to them," he said.
Carol Tao of HPM Builders said the Big Island company's start of random drug testing among its 175 employees has seen a 50 percent drop in workers' compensation claims.
The growing ice problem on the Big Island, especially in the Puna area, "makes it difficult for employers to find dependable, stable workers and has increased our company's losses due to theft," she said.
