Drug?free workplace policies are designed to promote safety and productivity. For businesses like ABILITY GROUP, ensuring compliance while maintaining fairness is essential for both reputation and workforce trust.
What Constitutes Abuse of Drug Policy?
Employers may cross the line when they:
- Conduct unauthorised or surprise tests without a lawful written policy.
- Force employees to resign after a positive screening without confirmatory testing.
- Ignore due process requirements, such as the right to contest results or receive proper notice.
- Fail to protect confidentiality, exposing sensitive employee information.
- Apply inconsistent standards, targeting certain workers unfairly.
In a dispute between Oliver & Return to Work SA and Bradley Painting Pty Ltd, questions arose over ‘serious misconduct.
A company director gave the worker a letter to attend a meeting.The worker became angry and refused.
The directors dismissed the worker for ‘serious and wilful’ misconduct, which resulted in the workers
The dispute was flawed for several reasons:
- There was no evidence that the worker knew about the company’s drug and alcohol
policy - The policy was too broad, allowing management to order drug and alcohol tests beyond the scope of the worker’s role
- Unspecified methods of drug testing stated in the policy
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Source: HEALTH & SAFETY BULLETIN