TESTING FOR DRUGS NOW RIGHTS ABUSE

OOTAWA -- Random drug and alcohol testing of workers and pre-screening of
potential new staff have been ruled an abuse of human rights by the federal
watchdog.

A new policy announced yesterday by the Canadian Human Rights Commission
says drug or alcohol dependence are disabilities and therefore workers with
those problems must be helped, not fired, by their boss.

"Employers, with very, very few exceptions, should not be testing
employees, or candidates for employment, for drugs," said commission
spokeswoman Catherine Barratt.

If an employer wants to know whether one of his staff uses drugs or drinks
too much on the weekend, that means he "perceives that the use of those
substances is going to disable them from doing their job on Monday and
that's forbidden -- that's against the law."