2nd March 2010, 05:16 PM
I am currently working on a big infrastructure project where testing of everyone for alcohol and drugs was carried out at end of the (extremely long) site induction. We also have random testing, and a number of people have been refused entry to site for testing positive (easily done as the site alcohol limit is 1/4 of the drink drive limit, and we've been told that we shouldn't drink within 8 hours of starting work, and that we can only have 2 drinks within 16 hours of starting - there goes a sneaky midweek catch up with my mates). As one of only two women in a room full of guys (some of them making sniggering comments about our ability to wee into a cup), the experience wasn't all that pleasant, but I still think I would prefer to go through that than the alternative I've witnessed on some sites, where I've found stashes of empty cans of white lightning in the basement (I raised the issue with the construction site manager, he shrugged his shoulders and said they must have come from before they started on site - not given the stench coming from the labourers on site!).
I think my main gripe is that I am not really happy about this sort of testing being carried out by a third party who is not my employer. I feel I have little or no control over what they chose to do with that information, and it is difficult to find out. I am fed up of being asked at inductions for my NI number and other personal information - surely this is my employer's responsibility and not that of the company running the site? If random testing was carried out by my employer, surely that would also fit better into a clear company drugs/alcohol policy, which the main contractor could then satisfy themselves was in place? Given the case recently where certain major contractors were found to be circulating blacklists of perceived troublemakers I do not trust them with this sort of information.
Grindlecat, we were also given one story at the induction about a guy who tested positive for Codeine, who had been taking too many painkillers for several weeks but didn't realise until he had the drugs test that this was doing serious damage to his health!
I think my main gripe is that I am not really happy about this sort of testing being carried out by a third party who is not my employer. I feel I have little or no control over what they chose to do with that information, and it is difficult to find out. I am fed up of being asked at inductions for my NI number and other personal information - surely this is my employer's responsibility and not that of the company running the site? If random testing was carried out by my employer, surely that would also fit better into a clear company drugs/alcohol policy, which the main contractor could then satisfy themselves was in place? Given the case recently where certain major contractors were found to be circulating blacklists of perceived troublemakers I do not trust them with this sort of information.
Grindlecat, we were also given one story at the induction about a guy who tested positive for Codeine, who had been taking too many painkillers for several weeks but didn't realise until he had the drugs test that this was doing serious damage to his health!