UNION FURY AT URINE TESTS

A union delegate was made to sit in a room drinking water until he
could provide a urine sample for bosses enforcing drug tests, it was
claimed yesterday.

Now metal workers at the Hunter Valley firm are considering industrial
action.

Employees at P and H Minepro at Mt Thorley say they were threatened
with suspension unless they gave a urine sample, a Construction
Forestry Mining and Energy Union spokesman, Mr Bob Cochrane, said.
They had been humiliated.

A group of 20 workers, accused on Wednesday of being under the
influence of drugs following a company function four days earlier, was
forced to give urine samples.

"The blokes objected and said 'What happens if we say no' and they
said 'All right, we just assume you're under the influence of drugs
and we'll suspend you'," Mr Cochrane said.

One delegate who said he could not provide a sample was made to "sit
in a room, drinking water until he could give them a sample," Mr
Cochrane said.

"When he did finally give them a sample, it was clean. The guy's been
humiliated, had his privacy and human rights invaded, and we're going
to take them on."

Mr Cochrane said the union understood the company had obligations
under workplace safety.

The union had no problem with a test which could measure the degree of
influence a worker was under, "provided it is done in the proper way,"
he said.

No-one at P and H Minepro was unavailable for comment.