Colleague drinking at work

Here is what the Health and Safety Executive says:

'Employees have general duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
They must take reasonable care of themselves and others who may be affected by their actions and comply with their employers arrangements for managing health and safety.
If you are an employee or working under someone else's control, the law says you must:

• inform your employer of any work situation you consider dangerous, or of any shortcoming in their protection arrangements for health and safety
• use all work items provided by your employer correctly, in accordance with your training and the instructions you received to use them safely.'

Re bullet point 1 above, you have (or suspect you have) a dangerous situation at your work because a colleague working in the warehouse is drinking (or you suspect he is) and could cause harm to himself and/or other staff. It is your duty as an employee to inform your employer, and it is up to your employer to deal with it.

PS - it is not your duty to search bags, so please don't do that again!

Well, “another colleague” really indicates one other. Who is also presumably not dumb enough to tell anyone

Yup. Used to have bag checks way back when I worked in a shop on Saturdays, didn't bother me then as I hadn't ever stolen anything. Somebody looking in the tote dumped on the shelf behind my chair isn't going to offend me, either. Because I've not done anything wrong/illegal/dangerous. It's actually a sackable offence at my work to have alcohol of any kind on site, as well as to be under the influence of it - if they wanted to look inside to check there wasn't a can of G&T in there, no skin off my nose.

She looked through the colleague’s bag WITH OTHERS. How was that “secret”?

You’d really be fine with colleagues going through your belongings… bullshit.

Wouldn't bother me particularly. All they'll find is a hairbrush, lip gloss I never remember to use, couple of tampons and my lunch box/water bottle containing water rather than gin.

How can she possibly set a precedent? She’s done it secretly, won’t tell anyone about it and has no power or authority to set a precedent?!

She’s set a precedent. If someone loses someone it will be perfectly fine to check her bag - just in case.

As she's not necking back the booze before rolling two and a half tonnes+ of stuff around a warehouse, I doubt that the OP has anything to worry about on that score.

Or search bags, I assume

Shouldn't have gone through his bag, but you have confirmed your suspicions.

There are signs that he is drinking on duty without needing evidence... smell, demeanor etc, for the sake of his own safety this needs to be raised with the powers that be. You can do that without leaving yourself incriminated.

I hope you suffer the same invasion of privacy very soon.

Regardless of the legality of searching his bag, OP says he "uses pallet trucks and heavy lifting, manual work etc.". Doing that under the influence of booze is a danger to himself, and possibly colleagues. A back injury from simply not carrying something correctly, or instinctively trying trying to catch something that's slipping could put someone out of work.
The "strong suspicions about smelling something on his breath" need to be reported to management ASAP before someone gets hurt.

Searching the bag wasn't on but someone drinking at work is the business of everyone they work with.

Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t know what the guy does and can’t risk assess from the information the OP has given. You’re being a right drama queen.

there is no excuse for a company relying on staff information to manage the possibility of impaired working. They should have policies in procedures in place to identify it.

So @Itsmetheflamingo you are saying that you would happily endanger the safety of staff and customers/service users/children because it’s not your “responsibility” to alert anyone?

It’s actually the companies responsibility to put safeguards in place for this. I work for a company in similar environments and we have to put checks in place that employees aren't impaired, not rely on other employees to tell us

Jesus, don’t make something up - that’s even worse than snooping in his personal belongings.

People on this thread are insane. He could be endangering his own life and the lives of others by messing about with warehouse equipment while drunk. Of course OP needs to discuss her concerns with someone in authority.

How would you feel if he was your child’s teacher, or driving instructor, or bus driver, or doctor?? People who are drunk or high should not be at work, unless their job is 70s rock star.

Harsh but true

Who the fuck do you think you are? Rifling through someone else's things, that's a new low. Mind your own business, you sound a spiteful mare.

This. You know you shouldn’t have looked in his bag. However you absolutely need to report the smell of alcohol and his behaviour as a warehouse is too dangerous an environment for someone to be working while impaired. It is not just the risk to himself but the risk to everyone else around him.

Report to manager and let them deal with it. There are other explanations e.g. medical or mental health.

Don't mention the bag, don't spread gossip, don't do the bag thing again.

When I was young, some older colleagues had the odd drink at lunchtime (in one of the places I lived). And my teachers went to the pub on Friday lunch times. It's surely the amount that is more the issue, because if it was one wine, that's one thing, but if he's obviously drunk as you say, that could be dangerous, and I would worry about someone's mental heath if they need to drink all the time.

If you had safety concerns you should have raised with his line manager or HR, definitely shouldn't be rummaging through his personal belongs.