Alcohol and Australian Industry

Abstract

LCOHOLISM is one of Australia's major health problems. Since most alcoholics are in the work- force the problem has considerable implications for industry. A successful approach to helping em ployees with drinking problems is the company prog ram which aims for rehabilitation through counselling and referral to specialist treatment agencies. One such scheme operates in the Australian National Railways, South Australia.

Every Australian company carries a small but signifi cant number of employees who suffer from serious personal problems. Most companies, quite naturally, don't want to get involved. Private lives should be left to themselves, most believe, even though personal problems rarely stop between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Almost invariably they carry over into the working day and affect performance in the workplace.

Alcoholism is Australia's third most serious health problem behind cancer and heart disease^1,2 . It is a problem which has serious implications for industry for industry since, contrary to popular conception, most alcoholics exist not on 'skid row' but in the work force. Only three out of ten men and four out of ten women undergoing treatment for alcoholism are unemployed and approximately 5 per cent are of pensionable age¹. Even if those who present for treatment are a biased sample of the general population of alcoholics, the fact remains that a significant proportion of people suffer ing from alcoholism are in the work force.

Moreover, sufferers from alcoholism are typically afflicted with the maximum effect of the disease between ages 30 and 50, which is the stage of their working lives when they are likely to be most productive². Estimates of the number of problem drinkers in any work force range from 3 per cent to 10 per cent ³. The alcoholic is most likely to be male, a bread-winner and is equally likely to be found in any occupation or industry^3,4.

The alcoholic worker, in all but the last stages of alcoholism, is likely to go easily undetected when seeking employment⁴. Thus the problem of alcoholism in industry is not likely to be reduced but only recirculated by dismissal of alcoholic employees. Orga nisations thus have a vested interest in being able to do something for the employee with such problems. There are two problems of major importance: first, how to intervene tactfully and without invading privacy; second, how to respond to the very great complexity of modern social problems.

Apart from the human toll exacted by alcoholism, its cost to the community has reached alarming propor tions:

• Absenteeism among alcoholics is estimated to be between two and three times higher than average ².

• The World Health Organisation estimates that 20 per cent of all industrial accidents are the result of alcoholism⁶.

• The cost in lost production in the U.S.A. was estimnated in 1981 at 10 billion dollars.

• In Australia the cost to the community as a whole has been estimated to be in excess of $1,000 million per annum^1,2.

• In 1980/81 the cost to Australian industry was estimated at 790 million per annum⁶ .