URGENT! Rehabilitation definition

rrhammett

Our company's philosophy on substance abuse is that if an employee comes to us for help, we will help obtain employee assistance and try to make a provision of personal leave in order for the employee to seek rehabilitation. However, if we catch you, it is automatic termination.

We have an employee that came to management on June 21, at which time he admitted to having a serious drug addiction to methamphetamine. He informed us that he was scheduled to report to a rehabilitation center in a nearby town. He even got the rehab counselor to call me that day. In accordance with our above protocol, we allowed the employee to take 30 days personal leave with the stipulation that on day 31 he provide us with proof of counseling and/or rehabilitation.

The problem now arises that the employee did not go to the rehab place as promised to us and now is trying to twist the paperwork wording around. He informed us that he "fought the dragon" himself and did not need to go for inside counseling. I refused to accept this excuse. I informed him that he must provide proof of counseling or rehabilitation as per our agreement.

Please note that after I received many calls from him and his mother with excuse after excuse that I personally called at least 20 rehab centers for him and tried to provide as much info as possible to him regarding each one of these places, but he always had some type of excuse of why he could not go.

Now he informs me that he will seek a meeting with a substance abuse counselor on July 14 which is only seven days until his deadline of July 21. Employee states that meeting should satisfy our requirement for continued employment, since we did not specifically state what kind of treatment he was to receive.

Can anyone define a bona fide definition of counseling or rehabilitation. I would love to hear how others would handle this situation.

Kiwi

Our basic policy is much like yours. We would have given him a short time frame (3-4 days) to get an initial assessment from a Substance Abuse Professional and the SAP would need to contact us with verification that this was done. To return to employment, we would require confirmation that the employee has or is participating in the treatment program to the satisfaction of the SAP and a clean drug screen. We would also have an agreement with the ee for follow up random screens for a period of time, with a positive being cause for termination.

smaces_twin

We require the rehab to follow guidelines set by our EAP. What he did would not comply with our policy and I would deny. I would consider adding this to yours.