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Pathtech empowers employers to identify and eliminate the use of drugs and alcohol in the workplace. With statistics showing 9% of Australia’s workforce has attended work intoxicated, Pathtech’s services are now essential for many businesses.
View our workplace testing catalogue; see below
A step-by-step guide to development and implementation.
Before developing a suitable drug and alcohol (D&A) testing policy, there are a number of factors for a business to consider which will drive the most appropriate course of action, specific to its own requirements. Developing a policy is the first step, but the program must also be easily implemented, providing a sound and actionable foundation from which to ensure worker safety.
Many organisations around Australia are familiar with the process of on-site drug and alcohol testing for staff and contractors – but did you know that the process can be conveniently and easily managed in-house, without sacrificing accuracy?
It’s no surprise that drug and alcohol use in the workplace can have a negative impact, putting workers at risk of injury or worse, and meaning that employers are failing in their duty of care.
Screening for drugs in the workplace is becoming more widespread, but how do you determine which of the two available types of testing to use – saliva or urine? It is important to understand the key differences, as the results from each type of testing offer completely different insights.
To determine an employee’s fitness for work, saliva screening delivers significant benefit over urine testing, as it detects relatively recent drug use that could render an individual unfit to operate machinery, drive a vehicle or handle dangerous goods. Saliva testing is less intrusive than urine sampling, lessens the need for handling bodily fluids and delivers accurate, reliable results quickly.
As drug use becomes more prevalent, the impact it has on business and the economy overall is becoming harder to ignore. Many industry sectores are now at significant risk of failing to meet their WHS obligations – and it is no longer just transport, construction and other trades in the firing line.
Safety is non-negotiable in the mining industry and drug and alcohol testing remains a key area of focus and discussion. Yet diversity across organisations and cultures, even in the same industry, means that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a testing program. In fact, changes in your own organisation may mean that a process that may have been working well in the past no longer supports the business as it should. If your drug testing program is more difficult or costly than it should be then taking time to identify the key problem areas can be a valuable first step in simplifying the process.
Does this sound familiar? Click below to view the full PDF.
If you already manage your drug testing program in-house or are considering making a change to self-managed testing, our checklist may help to guide you in conducting a quick program health-check or in starting to think about your new self-managed approach.
Testing for drugs and alcohol in the workplace has a history of contention, with many companies electing to forego testing programs altogether due to concerns around employee rights and privacy. The truth, the single most important right of any worker is the entitlement to be safe in employment and to return to their family at the end of the day without being put at risk. The obligation of employers to meet duty of care requirements in the provision of a safe workplace means that drug use cannot be reasonably tolerated, so how do you maintain a balance between these two seemingly at-odds requirements?
