Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jun 2008
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Tess Kalinowski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

ON-JOB DRUG TESTING DEFENDED AS DETERRENT

Transport Officials, City Politicians Say Public Safety Paramount As 
TTC Considers Screening Practice

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.

The issue has taken on new urgency in light of an April 2007 accident 
that killed a subway maintenance worker. Antonio Almeida, 38, 
reportedly had drugs in his system when he died, after a piece of 
equipment wasn't properly secured to the work car he was driving.

While it's not believed he had anything to do with causing the 
tragedy, Almeida had been suspended for smoking marijuana during 
working hours within a year before his death. Earlier this week, a 
TTC bus driver was fired for being drunk on the job.

GO Transit does not screen its bus drivers for drug use, but new 
train crews employed by Bombardier and expected to be working on all 
GO trains by August are being screened upon hiring, said GO's chief 
of rail operations, Mike Wolcyyk. He had no details on the nature of 
the testing.

Making sure TTC operators are not impaired is a matter of public 
safety, Toronto Mayor David Miller said yesterday.

"I think we have to be extremely careful with public safety. The TTC 
operators and other heavy-equipment users have to be absolutely clean 
and sober, for obvious reasons," he told reporters in Ottawa.

"I think the TTC needs to review everything, including what 
management is doing today," he said. "The supervisors have a very 
important role to make sure somebody who comes to work impaired 
doesn't drive a bus."

Elected TTC commissioner Peter Milczyn (Ward 5, Etobicoke-Lakeshore) 
said he was in favour of testing, under certain conditions.

"When there are employees who have a history of drug and alcohol 
abuse, and they are operating equipment, there should be some kind of 
mechanism to follow up," he said. "Are we going to go the route of 
random testing for every operator of equipment? That's a very 
complicated issue.

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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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom