It may be unpopular with workers and human rights advocates, but testing employees for drugs and alcohol deters on-the-job use of both, say some experts and employers.
“It clearly does act as a deterrent. It’s just like (tickets for) speeding down the highway – you can lose your licence,” said Jim Devlin, president of Coach Canada, which uses both random and pre-employment tests on drivers and others in its 800-employee workforce.
Devlin was defending the practice in light of the TTC’s plan to consider testing for its workers as part of a broader safety review this summer.
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Such screening is common among U.S. public transit agencies, but in Canada, only Windsor screens its bus drivers.
About half of Transit Windsor’s 161 full-time drivers have been submitting to random Breathalyzer and urine tests over the past decade because they want to qualify to drive across the border to Detroit, said Patrick Delmore, director of operations. Tests are administered by an outside lab approved by the U.S.
Delmore refused to comment on how effective the practice is in reducing drug and alcohol use on the job.
But David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association, said it’s an effective tool for the 60 per cent of Ontario truckers who undergo screening because they, too, drive across the border.
“We’re tested pre-employment, we’re tested post accident, and we’re tested if there’s a reasonable suspicion – and each (trucking company) operator has to have some of its supervisory staff trained to spot the signs (of drug use or inebriation).”
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