A healthy work environment for Eastern European migrant workers in The Netherlands

Eastern European migrant workers in the Netherlands are at a higher risk to experience problems related to the use of alcohol and other drugs. They experience a wide range of risk factors. Examples are long and irregular working hours, harsh working conditions, job instability, poor housing conditions and living far away from their social networks. Limited access to health care and language barriers further puts them in a vulnerable position. Alcohol and other drug policies (AOD policies) at the workplace offer a solution to reach this vulnerable group with prevention, and, if needed, referral to specialised care. However, there is limited understanding of cultural specific prevention needs for this group and the implementation of AOD policies in companies with migrant workers is lagging behind. In this talk, we will discuss the importance and need for AOD policies for eastern European migrant workers. We highlight national developments aimed at promoting AOD policies for this group, including the following: advise processes for companies with a high number of migrant workers, a national symposium that was aimed at exchanging barriers and best practices among employers and the start of a multi-year research project with the aim to develop a culturally sensitive preventive AOD policy for the workplace. These developments are the first steps towards better fitted and implemented policies and are helping to put AOD policies for migrant workers on the agenda.