Substance abuse might have been the story of the week in the sporting community, but Western Australian business, especially heavy industry, has a long track record of policies to deal with this issue.
Substance abuse might have been the story of the week in the sporting community, but Western Australian business, especially heavy industry, has a long track record of policies to deal with this issue.
Many companies in the mining and construction sectors have serious and regular testing procedures, which they update regularly to keep pace with social trends and the latest practices.
With the current boom, a wave of new workers is also prompting companies to review their procedures.
BGC Contracting health, safety and environment manager Paul Randell says the company’s formal alcohol and other drug policy has been tightened during the past six months.
While he said BGC’s position of zero tolerance had not changed, the frequency of testing had increased.
“As the organisation grew, we’ve had to bring in a lot of inexperienced people to the industry and a lot of those people don’t have the same maturity in the industry as the workforce that we had at a steady state for four years, who understand the risks involved,” Mr Randell said.
BGC Contracting carries out random DNA tests of employees, testing 5 per cent of the workforce on a particular project, five times a month.
The system includes testing of employees at the company’s head office in Hazelmere.
“In the past five-year period, we’ve had to dismiss two people out of a workforce of currently 1,300,” Mr Randell said.
“We think that the policy is working because we’ve had only two re-offenders within the period.”
Mr Randell said the company received about six positive tests a month.
“We used to do less frequent, random tests, but we’ve always done at least one or two blanket tests across sites each year,” he said.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 and Regulations 1996, employers have a general duty of care to provide a safe system of work.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA provides a fact sheet to business recommending an alcohol and other drug policy, as part of a broader safety and health policy, and advocates education and training for employees about the risks of drug use at work.
However, it also recognises that alcohol and drug testing is controversial, with high costs, confidentiality issues and interpretation of results among the areas of concern.
Mining giant BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s drug and alcohol policy starts at a pre-employment medical and involves random alcohol and drug testing of employees, contractors and visitors.
The company has a three strikes policy, with a third positive test result leading to disciplinary action and possible contract termination, if alcohol or other drugs are detected above acceptable thresholds.
BHPB Iron Ore’s policy was updated in early 2006, principally to align company policy with the Australian standard on marijuana, imposing a six-hour time limit on providing a urine sample, and regulations on over-the-counter medications.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore also conducts regular, non-discriminatory random testing of employees at every site, including the Perth metropolitan area.
The company conducts causal testing following any incidents where management is concerned that an employee may be in breach of company policy, and an alcohol test unit is based on site for employees to self test.
Twenty per cent of the company’s 4,800 direct employees and thousands of contractors are tested each month.
About 2,000 employees and contractors were tested in the first two months of 2007.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA says about 80 per cent of WA employers support alcohol and other drug testing in the workplace for the purposes of safety, although the organisation believes a holistic approach to policy development is needed.
