Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) bf7-4e3c-a491-1046a669b3ce Copyright: 2004 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Tom Barrett Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) GROUPS DEBATE DRUG TESTING LAW Randomly testing workers likely against charter EDMONTON - A law authorizing private companies to randomly test their workers for alcohol or drug abuse would likely face a constitutional challenge, says a local law professor. "The difficulty for the minister is that if he passes legislation, he brings the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) in," says Peter Carver of the University of Alberta Law School. Charter challenges can't be launched against companies, but they can be brought against laws, he said. Clint Dunford, Alberta's minister of human resources and employment, said Wednesday the government needs to create a legislative framework for company testing over the next five years to combat the growing problem of impairment on the job. Dunford said he thought random drug and alcohol testing would be part of that procedure. No other province has such legislation, but most American states do, according to his department. Some of Alberta's largest companies already have mandatory pre-employment testing plus employee testing based on reasonable grounds. Those practices apparently do not violate human rights legislation, says Carver. A decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal found random testing violated human rights law, however. A new Alberta law that authorized random testing would probably face a charter challenge under the equality section, he suggested. "It could be claimed that it discriminated against people with a disability," Carter said. "If alcoholism and drug addiction are illnesses, then employees with those conditions are disabled, according to the argument. There's not much point in the government bringing in new legislation unless it wants to expand or reduce a companies' ability to test employees, he noted. Dunford expressed significant concern about drinking and drug taking on the job, but a study by AADAC in 2002 found little change in worker drinking habits and only a slight increase in drug use in a decade, mostly from marijuana use. Comparisons were used with a similar AADAC study conducted in 1992. A survey of nearly 3,000 employees showed about 11 per cent of workers acknowledged drinking on the job during the past year. The AADAC study found above-average, at-risk drinking in the construction and wholesale-retail trade business. A couple of labour organizations joined Dan MacLennan, the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, in challenging the need for random drug testing. Kevin Flaherty, of the Alberta Workers' Health Centre, cited the AADAC report, noting only one per cent of employees reported using drugs at work. "Attempts to make drugs or alcohol the boogeyman in Alberta workplaces have no basis in reality," he said. "Random testing does intimidate, humiliate and stigmatize those whose recreational use of alcohol and drugs has no impact on their job," he added. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh