Daytime drinking put on 'don't you dare' list

A beer or wine over lunch is out for Transpower staff in a crackdown on daytime drinking.

"It is so strict that if any staff drink even one glass of alcohol at lunchtime, they are not allowed to return to work that day," said a former Transpower staffer, who did not want to be named.

The policy aims to bring office-based staff in line with alcohol restrictions the company demands from its contractors.

The Public Service Association, which represents workers in the public sector, sees the policy as unnecessary and unwelcome.

National secretary Brenda Pilott said she had not heard of a policy so defined in terms of alcohol consumption. Normally employees were simply required to be "fit and able to work".

"It is a bit of a worry," Ms Pilott said.

"If you employ people to do a job, you are employing an adult and you should treat them as adults. And if there are problems, you should deal with them as they arise."

Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts said the new policy was not being policed.

"There's no testing or anything; people are just expected to adhere to the policy.

"As we require our contractors who work in the field to abstain from alcohol, it's only fair that we require it from our own staff."

The new alcohol and drug policy was implemented by a staff member with a drink-driving conviction, which aggravated some staff further.

The former worker said: "Some are a bit miffed that the Transpower manager who 'owns' the policy and is responsible for it recently got convicted of being 50 per cent over the drink-drive limit."

The company's human resources general manager, Stuart Low, was convicted for an incident several months ago.

His breath-alcohol reading was 609mcg per litre of breath; the legal limit is 400mcg. He was fined $500 and disqualified from driving for six months.

Mr Low said his drink-driving incident occurred outside of work hours, and the policy and the incident "have nothing to do with each other".

Transpower staff had not made any mention of his conviction when asked to comment on the policy, he said.

"We gave people, as with all our policies, ample opportunity to comment, and the comments were not unfavourable."