In order to protect your business from drugs and alcohol misuse, it’s important for your staff to receive professional drug and alcohol testing.
Protecting your business from drugs and alcohol misuse is a critical part of keeping employee’s safe, reducing accidents and protecting your business brand. Fusion can offer a wide range of services to support you in this area from consultancy to providing the collection service:
• Expert Policy Review
• Routine Screening
• Random Screening
• For Cause Testing
In today’s society, one in ten people would fail a random drug test*
Drug and Alcohol Testing
By offering your employees Drug and Alcohol Testing, you can inform them about:
- Your company’s policy on drug and alcohol misuse
- Understanding fully informed consent
- Why and when they may be tested
- What will happen if they produce a positive sample
- What happens when the laboratory confirms a result
24-34-year-olds are most likely to test positive for drugs or alcohol misuse
Over 20% of respondents admitted turning up to work, coming down from drugs*
*The 2014 Global Drug Survey (GDS) was conducted during November/December 2013 with nearly 80,000 respondents worldwide.
Did you know we also offer staff training for drug and alcohol testing. We can train your test to administer tests so you can do it in-house. For more information visit our drug and alcohol testing training page.
What is the procedure for a drug and alcohol test?
Workplace drug and alcohol testing is there to ensure that all employees are free from impairment and are able to undertake their role without putting themselves or others at risk. It may take place when an employee first joins a company, after a particular incident, or as part of a random screening programme. The tests will include a trained technician performing either a urine or oral fluid test. Breathe alcohol tests will also be carried out if required.
The procedure for drug and alcohol testing should ideally be written out in company policies. Any tests or searches should be conducted with appropriate respect and accommodations, for example providing the opportunity for same-sex technicians or members of staff and having a witness present.
Can an employee be forced to take a drug and alcohol test?
If an employer wants to test their employees for drugs, they are at liberty to do so, however they need to obtain consent from the workers. While the employees can refuse to take the test, if there are grounds for testing under contractual health and safety policy, this could lead to disciplinary action or dismissal.
If the employer is seeking to perform random drug tests those should be truly random, and singling out any particular group, unless justified by their positions, can be classified as discriminatory.
Will the results of the test remain in the employee's medical records?
The results won’t be on an employee’s medical records; however, they are the property of the employer.
Can the test be circumvented?
There are mechanisms within a test to avoid adulteration, such as temperature and PH balance. Speak to a member of our team who can advise.
