DRUG TESTING

Your view on workplace alcohol and drug testing in light of the
Employment Court's ruling is too simplistic. The unions which took the
case argued that the right not to be tested in a humiliating way by
being randomly asked to provide a urine sample could be traded off if
doing so was an effective health and safety measure.

The question is whether random testing for drug use (as opposed to
post-incident or "for cause" testing which was conceded during the
hearing as having some value) is an effective measure. We argued that
it was not because it cannot tell the employer that the employee is
impaired and therefore cannot prove anything.

As for whether it is a deterrent, the reality is that under a truly
random testing regime any worker has a significantly greater
probability (some 99 percent) of not being tested on any working day.
Some deterrent.

Unions and their members have the greatest vested interest in having
the best possible health and safety measures in the workplace. Random
testing is far from failsafe and is nothing more than a lottery. No
one should feel safer with businesses hat place so much reliance on
random testing.

Andrew Little, national secretary, Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing
Union.