Colleague drinking at work

I would go to management and say you are concerned about his behaviour and can smell alcohol on him. Don't admit to the snooping.

If he’s intoxicated then it’s a breach of basic health and safety requirements so you should definitely report your suspicions of him being drunk whilst carrying out his duties, especially as he’s operating machinery.

Drunk employees at work are fine until one day, they’re not!

This is pretty straightforward, I'm surprised there is any debate.

"Hi manager, can I've a word? I can't be certain but I suspect X is drinking alcohol at work. He appears to become intoxicated during the day. That's all. Bye"

Jesus fucking christ. MN at its finest.

I've been where you are, but there was no snooping involved. I reported my concerns, that was all I could do.

You shouldn't have gone through his bag. If you were concerned you speak to your line manager or HR.

There's no technically wrong about it, you were just wrong. You should have just raised the concerns about him being drunk at work but no you rifle through the bag and now can't do anything about it.

I think it would be reasonable to report this as a safety concern, as he is handling heavy machinery, purely for the reasons apparent to anybody keeping an eye on him; the lingering smell, the erratic behaviour. It is a H&S matter, regardless of cause. No need to mention going through his personal belongings; it was wrong, and the bottle could be explained away.
You say that the "hyper" behaviour has only been for the last two weeks or so, and he has recently stopped driving himself to work. This may be because his behaviour is becoming harder for him to control, and he is keeping quiet about losing his licence because it will have implications for his job.
Early in my career, I observed from a distance as a colleague was moved on; it was the outcomes which caught up with her (unpunctuality, increasing spells of absence, impaired performance in the classroom) but this was after a "special medical" to establish whether her inability to sustain the work was medical or from other causes.

He works with machinery and smells of booze?

You should have raised it at the point the smell was notable and the behaviour changed

Before snooping around

Just describe what you have witnessed 'lawfully'. That he smells of alcohol and that he has done this and said that. You need to be specific and clear in your examples rather than 'erratic' or 'seems drunk'. Is he slurring? Making inappropriate comments? Unsteady? Sleepy? You don't need to diagnose him, you just need to describe the problematic behaviour and let your employer take it from there.

If I liked him I would probably slip him some gum and maybe spray and say “hay you should freshen up in case you have to speak to management because you smell like booze and I’m only telling you because I don’t want you to get sacked” but honestly really depends on the person

So you’ve done wrong, but now you do know..

You’ve got to do something, supposing an accident happens?

Although why you took in upon yourself to snoop and not just escalate your concerns, god only knows why!

Ignore the snooping for a second. You hav enough to for the HR with the smelling alcohol and his behaviour. You don't need to mention anything else. I'd do this and leave them to do the rest.

Putting aside the fact you snooped in his bag, you may have seen wine in the beaker but that doesn’t automatically mean he’s drunk it before/during work.

regardless, mention to management that you can smell alcohol on him (if you can). You can’t mind your own business because there’s a serious risk to the safety of other people. By law you probably have a duty to flag this officially.

I would raise your concerns with your manager/HR about him smelling of alcohol and worrying he may be under the influence at work and leave it at that.

The bottle may be old, from the weekend when he went to an event and smuggled in cheap alcohol, so you don’t know that means he was drinking at work. But as a recovering alcoholic, who used to drink at work, I think there can be a lot of benefit to being offered support at work. I may help him a lot in the long run if it’s addressed kindly by HR and he can be referred for more support.

He could seriously hurt someone using that sort of equipment when UTI of alcohol and/or drugs. Does your company have a testing system for this? Ok so you shouldn't have snooped, but you smelled the booze and witnessed his erratic behaviour. Report him. How would you feel if he disabled someone or worse through drinking, and you hadn't done anything to prevent it?

Everyone saying to report him to management, ffs it's only been two weeks he's been a bit 'hyper' on the job. Mind your own business and don't do anything for now.

So don't mention that. Just go to management and tell them you're concerned he's drunk in work. Don't go into more detail other than he's acting erratically and you can smell it.

From then on, its their problem.

You should not have gone into his bag, you cannot mention that.

You can and should inform your manager that you are concerned that he is intoxicated. You cannot say that he is drinking at work unless you see him doing it. He could still be drunk from the night before.

Oh and if they have CCTV on site you should work on the assumption that you going through his bag will be discovered and make a decision as to whether the outcome for you is likely to be better if you admit it upfront or wait to be caught. If you have a union rep now might be the time to seek advice.

I dint think it would be something the police would prosecute . But op the stinking of booze is enough, is it stale booze ie night before or like they are nipping in the toilets and having a drink?

Mind your own business!

Awful of you to go through his backpack but why don't you just speak to him & ask him? Say everything you said here but without the mention of snooping through his bag?

Trespass to goods (interfering with someone’s personal property), no justification, no legal basis, no consent. Even if he were asked by a manager/HR, he could legally refuse a search of his personal property.

OP if I were you, I'd forget about this search and just let your manager know.

Not ‘technically’ in the wrong, absolutely completely and totally in the wrong.

You should raise a concern to your line manager or HR about your suspicion that he may be drinking on the job as he poses a real and valid Health & Safety risk to himself and everyone else on site due to his role and the use of heavy machinery.

Illegally searching his bag when you have no right to investigate him was an awful decision and crossed several lines.