drug tests at work

Rotty said:
so what would heppen to someone who had been over to Amsterdam for a weekend and got tested the week after ? they have done nothing illegal
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not illegal but if there are drug tests there is probably something in the contract to say you can't take them (regardless of if it's legal or not)

sellafield do random drug tests but they are a waste of time, id say about 30% of the staff there are regular drug users.

they have a policy where if you are caught, you only get a warning. so no one cares unless they have been caught before cause they know they'll get away with the first one
 
@ the OP

The way I see it is this. In modern Britain you cannot simply fire someone for being a lazy, skiving, always-off-sick loser. I have worked many student jobs with many full time 'tards from Stoke On Trent (mainly when I was at Alton Towers, the number who get sacked is actually ridiculous!). Even at the many Tescos I have worked at, most people have one speed of work, which is **** you.

If I employed someone who was always having a day off here and there, lazy at work and/or didn't care about the job, then a drugs test is a good way off sacking him/her on the spot.

Take the drugs test - If he/she refuses = sacked.
If he/she fails the test = sacked.

If I had my own business and I had permanent employee who turned out to be a chocolate teapot, I would get them to to a drugs test if I thought that there was any chance of them failing it.

AHarvey said:
I work in industry that attracts a lot of dossers, and several of them insist on smoking weed while at work.
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If they smoke weed literally during working time = sacked.
I would have thought openly admitting to using weed would also be a very good reason to subject said employee to a drugs test.
 
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mglover070588 said:
@ the OP

The way I see it is this. In modern Britain you cannot simply fire someone for being a lazy, skiving, always-off-sick loser. I have worked many student jobs with many full time 'tards from Stoke On Trent (mainly when I was at Alton Towers, the number who get sacked is actually ridiculous!). Even at the many Tescos I have worked at, most people have one speed of work, which is **** you.

If I employed someone who was always having a day off here and there, lazy at work and/or didn't care about the job, then a drugs test is a good way off sacking him/her on the spot.

Take the drugs test - If he/she refuses = sacked.
If he/she fails the test = sacked.

If I had my own business and I had permanent employee who turned out to be a chocolate teapot, I would get them to to a drugs test if I thought that there was any chance of them failing it.
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In England, unless contracted, you can not threaten another human being with taking away their livelihood (or actually take away their livelihood) if they refuse to pee in a pot, or have a needle jabbed into them, upon your command because you fancy it. You just can't do it. We just simply don't work like that in the UK.
 
britboy4321 said:
In England, unless contracted, you can not threaten another human being with taking away their livelihood (or actually take away their livelihood) if they refuse to pee in a pot, or have a needle jabbed into them, upon your command because you fancy it. You just can't do it. We just simply don't work like that in the UK.
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As you say the magic word 'contracted'.
I haven't signed a contract in recent years that hasn't mentioned drug use. Maybe this is because the job involves machinery or not I am not sure, but the contract says employment is subject to paying a medic including drug test.

In the same way that redundancies allows you to get rid of the donkeys from your team, so do drugs tests. Whether they are 'random' drugs tests or not, what people think in their heads cannot recorded as evidence.
If I had an employee I suspected of drug abuse and it mentioned drugs in the contract, I would test them with a few other people and call it 'random'. If they protest then they are refusing to participate in the drugs test.
 
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good luck to getting them to agree that change to their contract!

What employers need to learn is that a contract of employment goes BOTH ways! i.e you cant change it at will
 
I always thought that cannabis stayed in your system for a lot longer than a few weeks,i thought it was more like a few months!.
 
Rotty said:
so what would heppen to someone who had been over to Amsterdam for a weekend and got tested the week after ? they have done nothing illegal
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In my trade it would result in disciplinary proceedings.

If I failed to give a sample it would lead to the same.

Introduced about two years ago for us. You turn in for a shift and with no warning, Professional Standards are there with occy health for random drug testing.
 
Sonea Fifer said:
I believe cannabis can stay in your system for two weeks or so.
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Just spoke to my OH who is a nurse and advises cannabis from one smoking session (considering the user is initially clean) will take around 3-4 days to clear their system. For a habitual user you'd be looking at around 45 days before the drug is no longer detected using any medical tests.

Also as has been said random drug tests can be given to any employee regardless on whether this is in your contract or not. If found positive (for any drug) said company would have to prove the drug test was random (other employees tested too?) and it is opening up a whole can of worms if they decide to follow the disciplinary procedure given individual contract and unions may get involved as well.
 
We have random drugs test were I work. Too dangerous to have someone on site that's high or drunk. Its in our contract and isn't an issue at all.
 
Thanks for all the feedback people, I've passed this on to my boss and he can discuss it with HR.

I work for an online gambling company looking after the chat room moderators and customer support workers to the person that asked :)

As for the contracts, we've just had a massive restructuring and we all need new contracts so it would be quite easy to write any drugs testing in to it at this point.

I've got nothing against people doing this stuff in their private life, as long as it doesn't effect others. But when you have to deal with people on drugs at work it drives the rest of us mad, and isn't ideal for a customer facing role!
 
does it matter if they do drugs? what business is it of yours what they do on their free time?

as long as they can perform their work should be the only criteria to fire them or not.
 
lunarwolf said:
as long as they can perform their work should be the only criteria to fire them or not.
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doesn't really work in my place, caught taking drugs or having alcohol automatic kick out the door, their is far to much at stake and its to easy for people to get hurt or killed.
 
I'm sure I remember a clause in my contract about the influence of drugs while at work being a matter of gross misconduct. Doing the wrong thing while under the influence of drink or drugs where I work could potentially end up in the firm losing a shedload of money so I suppose maybe it's different. Saying that, I've never known anyone to be the subject of a test...

I agree that "social" use should be ignored, but if you're obviously off your face while at work, you should have the book thrown at you, as it's quite likely that in many industries, you're risking other people's livelihoods/safety as well as your own.

Anyhow, on a different point, I know a few van drivers who smoke weed all day while doing their deliveries. It really irks me as it surely must impact their judgement.. :(
 
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Von Smallhausen said:
In my trade it would result in disciplinary proceedings.

If I failed to give a sample it would lead to the same.

Introduced about two years ago for us. You turn in for a shift and with no warning, Professional Standards are there with occy health for random drug testing.
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I can understand that in your job

we had a scenatio where a customer wanted us all to be security cleared, part of this was a credit check, we objected and HR backed us :)
 
Bit harsh if i went to amsterdam, came back and got sacked. If it doesn't affect you or their standard or work why do you care?
 
Andy said:
Bit harsh if i went to amsterdam, came back and got sacked. If it doesn't affect you or their standard or work why do you care?
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Some employers believe that random drug tests reduce the number of people under the influence of drugs at work. It is a flawed concept however because many commonly used drugs cannot be detected in a drugs test and unless someone has a substance use disorder they will not be under the influence of a drug even if it is present in their urine. So what happens is that many people innocent of wrongdoing end up being fired while there is no corresponding safety or productivity benefit.
 
Why should my life be put at risk because someone came into work high or drunk? Most drugs stay in the system for a few days at least.
You have also got to ask yourself depending on where you work, would you put your life in the hands of a drug user? I know I wouldn't want to work next to anyone that did anything like that.
 
AHarvey said:
Thanks for all the feedback people, I've passed this on to my boss and he can discuss it with HR.

I work for an online gambling company looking after the chat room moderators and customer support workers to the person that asked :)

As for the contracts, we've just had a massive restructuring and we all need new contracts so it would be quite easy to write any drugs testing in to it at this point.

I've got nothing against people doing this stuff in their private life, as long as it doesn't effect others. But when you have to deal with people on drugs at work it drives the rest of us mad, and isn't ideal for a customer facing role!
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its not going to be easy to write that into the contracts as you need everyone collectively to agree to it!
 
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