BE CLEAR ON DRUG TESTS
Given the pending legalization of marijuana, it’s important employers and workers understand the rules around drug use and the testing for its presence.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a union’s appeal of Suncor Energy’s wish to conduct random drug testing at its oilsands operations in northeast Alberta, but surely Canadians deserve clarity about when it’s permissible to consume marijuana and what measures employers can take to ensure a safe workplace.
It’s been a six-year battle since Suncor felt it was important to conduct random testing of workers who hold safety-sensitive positions. These are jobs that involve the operation of heavy equipment, for instance, and where accidents could cause injury or death and the destruction of property, which could idle production and impact the company’s workforce.
With the Supreme Court declining to consider an appeal, the matter will now go before yet another arbitration hearing.
The loss of privacy is a concern, but it’s difficult to understand why Unifor, which represents about 3,000 Suncor workers, is so determined to stop random testing. While it’s true current drug screening can’t determine impairment, just the presence of drugs, it seems reasonable an employer would want to know if people operating heavy machinery are using drugs.
One drug-testing company found that 44.6 per cent of samples proved positive for drug use among those who had demonstrated there was reasonable cause for concern. The tests showed signs of not just marijuana use, but cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and ecstasy.
It’s to be hoped the haggling will result in common sense. If workers aren’t using drugs — which extends to illicit substances far beyond marijuana — they have nothing to worry about.
We’re accustomed to acquiescing on occasion, after all, to what might appear to be a breach of our rights for the greater good. We willingly submit to searches and interrogation along with other measures every time we travel on a plane. We similarly understand that increasingly, our activities are likely to be recorded in public and private places without our expressed consent.
Taking safeguards to ensure the people operating heavy equipment in the oilsands and other workplaces aren’t under the influence of drugs, and therefore a danger to themselves and to their co-workers, isn’t a serious infringement of rights. The co-workers are union members, too, and deserve a safe workplace.
Let’s trust there will be a resolution to this important dispute soon — hopefully, in favour of random drug testing when appropriate.