All hospitality employers should incorporate the subject of drug and alcohol misuse into staff induction processes, health and safety meetings and employee handbooks, according to a leading hotelier.

Writing in Caterer this week, Harry Murray, managing director of Lucknam Park in Colerne, Wiltshire, said all employers had a responsibility to identify staff with problems before the consequences took hold. "If a member of staff was diagnosed with cancer, we would sympathise and offer help, but how many people look at alcoholics and drug addicts as the misfits of society and turn away hoping the problem will disappear?" he wrote.

Murray threw his weight behind Caterer's Be Aware campaign, which aims to raise awareness of alcohol and drug misuse in hospitality.

"I'm confident that if all the managers and leaders in our industry also support this campaign it will help to make more people aware of this growing problem which we all have a responsibility to address," he said.

For more on Caterer's Be Aware campaign go to www.caterersearch.com/beaware

By Daniel Thomas

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