A History of Drug Testing in the Australian Workplace

When considering employing drug testing in your company, you should realise that you are not alone. Whereas the introduction of onsite drug and alcohol screening may be a relatively recent phenomenon, it is far from being completely new.

NSW State Rail Authority was the first Australian company to provide drug screening in 1988. And although the programmes were not implemented for several years after inception, both the Australian Federal Police and the NSW Police Service proposed drug testing in the workplace as early as 1990. Shortly thereafter, policies governing workplace drug testing were implemented in the New South Wales mining industries, utilising urine and breath testing for those employed in positions that were particularly safety sensitive. The Australian Defence Force also has the right to use targeted testing on serving personnel, using urinalysis, and later introduced randomised drug screening.

In the mid nineties, the first Australian Standard regulating guidelines for urinalysis was introduced. It concerned itself with recommending guidelines for both collection and analysis of urine for the purposes of drug screening. BHP Iron Ore Mines introduced voluntary testing shortly after this, but was able to introduce random screening only after a long and complicated industrial dispute. Ten years after the first Australian Standard regulating drug screening for urine, a new Australian Standard was devised regulating drug screening for oral fluid samples. Nowadays, many companies are implementing onsite drug and alcohol policies.

Unlike in the US, where the government has enacted a specific Drug Free Workplace Act, Australia does not have specific laws governing the ability or obligation of companies to enact onsite drug and alcohol screening. Several industries, however, have their own standards, particularly the aviation and mining industries, where health and safety rules allow for testing to ensure correct safety procedures can and will be followed. Generally, in the majority of industries, workplace Alcohol Drug Testing falls under the heading of health and safety. Health and safety procedures may or may not specifically mention drug testing, depending on the industry, but it is seen as implied where it is not specifically mentioned.

Drug & alcohol testing has been somewhat controversial in Australia, and industry rules are frequently challenged. Many industry employees or trade unions have taken industry rule makers to tribunals or commissions in order to challenge their right to test for drugs and alcohol in the workplace. These people see drug screening as an invasion of privacy. However, it is becoming more and more accepted that whilst drug screening may involve some loss of privacy, it is becoming essential in order to preserve safety standards in the workplace. Workplace drug testing laws may not yet have become the norm in Australia, but industries are now seemingly choosing to govern themselves on this matter, and to enact Drug Alcohol Testing procedures anyway. 

This article has been taken from http://mediscreen.net.au/articles/?p=1943