Employees were increasingly becoming addicted to internet blogs, checking e-mails and sending text messages, affecting their overall productivity, Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia said yesterday.

The new habits sparked by the advent of the internet and ICT had to be tackled early, just like alcohol abuse, gambling and drug dependency, he said.

Dr Farrugia was opening a Sedqa seminar to launch a new policy on substance misuse and gambling at work.

The minister spoke on the importance of rehabilitating victims of such addictions and urged employers present for the launch to give reformed individuals a second chance.

The habits sparked by the internet and ICT had to be tackled early

In 1996, Sedqa launched the Substance Abuse Free Employees programme. However, very little research has been conducted in Malta and policymakers are therefore limited to studying the experiences of foreign countries. Toxicologist Ronald Agius, deputy head of the department of forensic and clinical toxicology at Labor Krone, in Germany, highlighted the fact that, in 2006, absenteeism at work as a consequence of alcohol abuse cost the EU economy between €9 and €19 billion.

The policy unveiled yesterday calls for more support to employees so they will not fear coming forward to seek help and overcome their dependency.

This would save on costs of recruiting and training new employees and absenteeism, improve productivity and reduce the risks of accidents at work.

A referral to treatment would trigger an automatic suspension of any disciplinary measures against the employee for the duration of the course. Employers would also commit themselves to guarantee strict confidentiality of the worker’s identity.

The policy suggests that absenteeism from work to undergo treatment be treated as sick leave. The employees’ job security would still depend, however, on their performance once they returned from leave.

The policy outlines various procedures that could be adopted to perform toxicological analysis of blood in cases where there is reasonable suspicion of abuse.