Published on September 4, 2008 by Donna Seale
If news of the recent substance abuse testing policy agreed to in British Columbia by the construction industry and the union representing construction workers was of interest to you (see my initial post here), I found a link to the policy that you might wish to have a look at (the resolution isn't terribly good, but it's still readable). The provisions relating to when testing for substances can occur starts on page 11. To summarize, the policy provides for the following types of testing to be conducted:
- Pre-access testing: testing to be done as a condition of an employee entering a job site;
- Voluntary testing: employees can bypass the need to be subjected to pre-access testing at each job site they wish to work at if they agree to volunteer to a substance test right away, agree to unannounced, random testing and also agree to periodic testing which would require employees to submit to a substance test if they had not been tested in the preceding 36 months;
- Post-accident testing: an employee must submit to a substance test if involved in a job-related accident and the employer believes that the employee's mental state may have contributed to the accident;
- Reasonable suspicion testing: employees are subject to substance testing where the employer suspects they have used drugs at work or are under the influence of drugs at work;
- Return-to-work, post-treatment, rehabilitation testing: if an employee tests positive or refuses a test mandated under the policy, the employee is to be professionally assessed and must provide a negative test for substance use before returning to work;
- Probationary status/follow-up testing: an employee who tests positive for substance use must undergo a further test upon return to the workplace and afterwards be subject to random testing for a period of up to two years.
It's obvious that a lot of work went into the drafting of this policy. It will be interesting to see if any employees legally challenge the policy.
You'll see from this article on the Daily Commercial News and Construction Record website, that the construction industry isn't ready to jump on the BC bandwagon. It would appear that the unions in Ontario are expressing concerns about possible human rights legislation violations should drug testing be implemented. As I noted in my previous post, that is the usual position taken by unions on this issue.
Related posts:
- BC Construction workers to be drug tested
- New drug testing publications of assistance to employers
- Pre-employment drug testing policy survives appeal court scrutiny
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