SeveredPsyche
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2001
- Messages
- 329
Found this article from The Age slightly amusing. Pick the right (or wrong) industry for testing and you could lose half the work force.
Workers face workplace drugs tests
Victorian workers reportedly face on-the-spot drug and alcohol tests under an employer crackdown on workplace safety.
Tests for cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana are initially proposed for the transport and construction industries, the Herald Sun said today.
According to the paper, one of the state's leading transport companies, Linfox, is about to introduce testing for its 5,000 staff around Australia, and another - Toll - is considering the tests.
Random testing, post-accident tests and pre-employment examinations are proposed.
Transport Workers Union state secretary Bill Noonan said drug testing would be standard policy throughout the industry within three years with up to 25,000 workers facing tests.
"It's inevitable," Mr Noonan told the paper.
"In three years' time it will be par for the course."
The Master Builders Association of Victoria said its plans to drug test construction workers could be in place within a year.
"I think we would be aiming for agreement with employees on something like that in the next 12 months," industrial relations and occupational health and safety officer Lawrie Cross told the paper.
It is a good idea for some, especially transport, but does that mean instant dismissal? Some US medications (e.g. on Marinol) warn about using machinery or driving a car and that the patient shouldn't drive unless they prove they are able to cope with the drug (???). The seems kind of bizarre, but I've heard the same argument for driving on illegal drugs (which I don't agree with either). Should a bus driver lose his job because he smoked pot on the weekend? If so, is it because he has comitted a crime, or because his judgement would be impaired?