Pubdate: Thu, 09 Apr 2015
Source: Advertiser (CN NF)
Copyright: 2015 Advertiser
Contact:  http://www.gfwadvertiser.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3453
Author: Randy Edison
Page: A3

DRUG TESTING A NO GO

Bishop's Falls council determines program unnecessary

After reviewing the pros and cons, Bishop's Falls council won't be
instituting a drug and alcohol-testing program for employees.

"It was just a discussion we held about whether we should we be doing
testing like some companies do," said Mayor Bob Hobbs when asked about
the decision made at the March council meeting.

"It's the Alberta syndrome. All the people that go away are tested and
we discussed whether we needed it for the protection of our workers.
We did look at and for a whole bunch of reasons it didn't make sense."

The review wasn't based on any incident, nor is drug and alcohol use
seen to be a problem, the mayor said.

"In all reality all your protections are already there so why create
an issue when there isn't one there?" he said.

Hobbs said if a worker came in under the influence, the town has the
right to deal with it.

"It hasn't been an issue in the past and we've certainly never had to
deal with it in all the years I have been involved," Hobbs said.

"And another factor is that if you wanted to put something like (drug
testing) in, we looked at some of the legal issues and it's the next
best thing to impossible to do it."
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MAP posted-by: Matt