DRUG, ALCOHOL TESTS AT WORK RULED ACCEPTABLE

Okay If Firing Not Automatic

After years of controversy and rulings against workplace drug testing,
Ontario employers have new freedom to conduct random alcohol tests of
workers in safety-sensitive jobs.

The tests are justified as long as employees who test positive are
subjected to individually tailored sanctions and not automatic
dismissal, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled.

The decision overturns earlier rulings in which Sarnia refinery worker
Marty Entrop emerged a winner in battles over the drug and alcohol
testing policy of his employer, Imperial Oil.

When the policy was introduced in 1991, in the wake of the Exxon
Valdez disaster, Entrop, who'd had an alcohol problem but hadn't
touched a drink in seven years, was automatically reassigned from his
job in the refinery control room.

Disclosure of any past alcohol abuse was mandatory and he wouldn't be
allowed to return to the control room for seven years.

Entrop filed a human rights complaint that succeeded in 1996 when
Constance Backhouse, who conducted an Ontario Human Rights Commission
board of inquiry, found that the policies discriminated on the basis
of a handicap, in this case the handicap being alcohol dependency.

Backhouse referred to expert testimony that there were less drastic
ways to monitor alcohol abuse, such as employer assessment and
supervision.

But Mr. Justice John Laskin of the appeal court, who wrote yesterday's
decision, said he found her reasoning weak and unpersuasive since
supervisors often have other duties and are reluctant to confront employees.

He found Imperial's policy requiring disclosure by employees of past
alcohol dependency, no matter how far back, to be unreasonable, given
evidence that the risk of relapse is drastically diminished after five
to seven years.

Backhouse's finding that Imperial's drug testing policy is illegal
remains unchanged by yesterday's decision. While Laskin found she
exceeded her authority by looking at the testing policy, he agreed it
violates the Ontario Human Rights Code.