WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING CONTROVERSIAL, SAYS ILO

The International Labour Office (ILO) is contending that controversy
still surrounds workplace drug testing (WDT), which is prescribed by
some as an effective way of managing substance abuse at work. In its
last months publication of, Bringing decent work into focus, the ILO
stated that several issues on the matter ranged from questions of
privacy to social responsibility and the role and potential
responsibility of employers and private enterprise.

The drug and alcohol testing in the workplace is beset by questions
such as whether test results are truly indicative of substance abuse
on the job, or if they show activities undertaken outside of the workplace.

The first argument, the ILO said that favour of WDT pertains most to
safety-critical professions in industries such as medicine,
transport and construction where impaired senses and judgement can
have extreme consequences.

Proponents of WDT argued that employers have a duty of care to
provide a safe working environment. At the same time, opponents of
the value of WDT said that it can show only the use, rather than the
impact on performance, and it cannot distinguish between use and abuse.

Workplace drug testing also raised several considerations including
the confidentiality of personal information and whether an employer
has a right to know what employees do outside of working hours.

The report stated that according to the 2005 Annual Report of the
United Nations Office Of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 200 million
working-age people between 15 and 64, or five per cent of the global
population, used illicit drugs at least once during 2005.

It was discovered that cannabis use is most prevalent in the islands
of the Pacific, followed by North America and Africa. Almost
two-thirds of the amphetamine and methamphetamine users of the world
reside in Asia. And two-thirds of the 14 million cocaine users
world-wide live in America, according to the UNODC report.