COURT DELAYS AIRLINE'S BID FOR DRUG-TESTING CHANGES

Drug and alcohol testing at Air New Zealand has been delayed until
after the festive season to allow union opponents to assess proposed
changes.

Six aviation unions challenging the airline's random-testing plans in
the Employment Court now have until mid-February to prepare legal
arguments, after a decision this week by Judge Graeme Colgan.

He was to have been joined next Monday by Chief Judge Tom Goddard and
Judge Barrie Travis in hearing submissions from the unions, Air New
Zealand and other interested parties.

Such are the potential ramifications of the case that the Privacy
Commissioner, Business New Zealand and the Council of Trade Unions
also want to be heard.

But Judge Colgan adjourned the case until February 16 after unionists
led by the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union sought extra
time to assess late changes proposed by the airline.

Air New Zealand is not backing away from random testing as part of a
drug and alcohol policy that includes computer-based training, but
intends tightening up medical oversight when employees are asked to
give urine samples.

This follows a hearing last month in which a former Air New Zealand
chief medical officer, called as a union witness, questioned the role
of human resources staff in dealing with the drug test results from a
Government forensic laboratory.

Dr David Black was scathing of plans to refer results to staff not
bound by a medical code of ethics, and of a lack of medical privilege
covering a consent form in which employees would be asked to disclose
any medication they used.

Air New Zealand opposed delaying the case, but the unions sought more
time for their expert witnesses to assess the proposed changes after
receiving details just last week.

Meanwhile, the Dairy Workers Union says a non-punitive drug and
alcohol policy it has negotiated with South Auckland-based New Zealand
Dairy Foods is attracting interest from other unions and employers.

Union secretary James Ritchie said yesterday that the policy
eliminated any need for invasive drug-testing programmes by
encouraging workers to admit abuse problems or seek help for colleagues.

He said that although drug and alcohol use was a serious problem,
random testing was an unreliable indicator of impairment by cannabis,
which remained inert in the body for several days after being ingested.