Pubdate: Sat, 21 Oct 2006
Source: Barbados Advocate (Barbados)
Copyright: Barbados Advocate 2006
Contact:  http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3499
Cited: UNODC's 2006 World Drug Report
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/world-drug-report.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/World+Drug+Report

WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING CONTROVERSIAL, SAYS ILO

The International Labour Office (ILO) is contending that controversy 
still surrounds workplace drug testing (WDT), which is prescribed by 
some as an effective way of managing substance abuse at work. In its 
last months publication of, Bringing decent work into focus, the ILO 
stated that several issues on the matter ranged from questions of 
privacy to social responsibility and the role and potential 
responsibility of employers and private enterprise.

The drug and alcohol testing in the workplace is beset by questions 
such as whether test results are truly indicative of substance abuse 
on the job, or if they show activities undertaken outside of the workplace.

The first argument, the ILO said that favour of WDT pertains most to 
safety-critical professions in industries such as medicine, 
transport and construction where impaired senses and judgement can 
have extreme consequences.

Proponents of WDT argued that employers have a duty of care to 
provide a safe working environment. At the same time, opponents of 
the value of WDT said that it can show only the use, rather than the 
impact on performance, and it cannot distinguish between use and abuse.

Workplace drug testing also raised several considerations including 
the confidentiality of personal information and whether an employer 
has a right to know what employees do outside of working hours.

The report stated that according to the 2005 Annual Report of the 
United Nations Office Of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 200 million 
working-age people between 15 and 64, or five per cent of the global 
population, used illicit drugs at least once during 2005.

It was discovered that cannabis use is most prevalent in the islands 
of the Pacific, followed by North America and Africa. Almost 
two-thirds of the amphetamine and methamphetamine users of the world 
reside in Asia. And two-thirds of the 14 million cocaine users 
world-wide live in America, according to the UNODC report.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine