RANDOM ALCOHOL, DRUG TESTS REVIEWED

Alberta's booming construction industry is looking at changing its
safe workplace guidelines to include random drug and alcohol tests for
employees.

The proposal is part of a review by the Construction Owners
Association of Alberta of its current workplace practices.

Employers and union leaders taking part in the review are grappling to
balance a push for safer work sites with the legal rights of employees.

"It is on the table. It is accurate to say people are looking at it,"
said Bob Blakely, director of Canadian Affairs of the Building and
Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.

Blakely, who sits on the review committee headed by a Syncrude Canada
official, said a random drug test policy could work if it followed
strict rules.

But he added such testing is bound to end up in the courts and result
in complaints to the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

"What it comes down to is this: Is my right to ingest some
intoxicating substance more important than your right to go home alive
at the end of the day from work?"

Alcohol and drug testing is already taking place at some Alberta work
sites, especially in the energy and construction industries.

Human rights tribunals in Ontario and Alberta have ruled that
employers may test workers in safety-sensitive positions or after an
accident.

The Alberta Human Rights Commission takes the position that blanket
random testing is discriminatory.

Neil Tidsbury, president of Construction Labour Relations Alberta,
also sits on the industry committee reviewing the random drug test
proposal. Tidsbury said some employers believe tests would make
dangerous construction work sites, such as heavy oil projects, safer.

"We are on a relentless drive for zero accidents and zero injuries.
That is what this is all about."

The Alberta government has been taking a wait-and-see approach.

A government-appointed committee made up of industry groups and some
unions submitted a report in 2003 recommending that Alberta consider
amending its human rights law to allow for random testing.

The province has not responded to that report, which has never been
officially released.

Don MacNeil of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, said
any move to bring in random drug testing would be challenged.

"We view (random) testing as vigilante justice where companies take
the role of police and the jury," said MacNeil. "We believe it is a
blatant abuse of human rights."