Labor Council To Attend Alcohol Summit

The NSW Labor Council submission to the NSW Alcohol Summit will address issues surrounding occupational health and safety and other issues affecting employees.

Under the NSW OHS Act 2000 all employers are required to consult with the employees with regard to all aspects of workplace safety. A number of employers in NSW have introduced Drug and Alcohol policies without any consultation with their employees. The Labor Council is very concerned that a number of employers are ignoring the policy guidelines which have been developed by the Labor Council, WorkCover, the Dept of Health and NSW Police. These guidelines have been produced for employers and unions to follow when developing and implementing drug and alcohol policies in the workplace and are available in a series of fact sheets.

The Labor Council of NSW or its affiliated unions do not support employees turning up for work under the influence of alcohol or drugs and the unions certainly agree with employers introducing measures, which effectively minimise the risks, associated with drug and alcohol harm minimization.

The concern is that employers have introduced random based urine testing under their drug and alcohol policies that do not comply with the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 or the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001. The urine-based sample does not provide information on when the substance was last ingested, nor if the person was under the influence of the substance at that time.

Drug testing is extremely intrusive and invasive and requires blood and urine samples to be taken. The Labor Council is of the clear view that unless the employer has a sound basis to suspect that a person is under the influence, or is impaired by a substance, then the employee has the right to refuse to undergo this test.

Impairment

The Labor Council has developed a fact sheet on fatigue and impairment with experts assisting in developing the fact sheet. They have defined impairment as a person's inability to perform a task at a normal level of concentration and to do that safely.

Impairment can result from alcohol ingestion, drug usage, medications, disturbed sleep, excessive working hours and fatigue.

Employers will argue that there is no scientific test for impairment in respect of drugs or drugs combined. However there are clinical based behavioural assessments that are legally accepted. Victoria has adopted this approach.

The unions are of the clear view that this assessment should be used in the first instance.

A combination of testing methodologies increases the chance of an employer making a right decision about an employee.

Impairment assessment procedures are useful in identifying people under the influence of drugs and every individual displays differing symptoms when influenced by drugs and alcohol according to age, health, medical history, etc. This fact needs to be considered when assessing people for impairment.

The Labor Council bases its submission on the advice of leading experts in the field of drug testing.

The NSW Labor Council submission also addresses Guidelines for Developing a Drug and Alcohol Policy, Education, Referral and Rehabilitation, and Privacy Issues.

Individual unions will also be submitting their own submissions to the summit.

The NSW Government will host the NSW Alcohol Summit from 26 August to 29 August 2003 at Parliament House, Sydney.

The Summit will bring together alcohol experts, families, industry, representatives of interest groups, community leaders and Members.

To discuss this and many other interesting OH & S topics visit our discussion boards at http://unionsafe.labor.net.au/shoptalk/

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:36 EST