If you’re a workplace owner or manager in Darwin or the Northern Territory in a safety-sensitive industry, there’s something you need to do this financial year. It’s not directly related to increasing profit, although it can certainly save you a lot of money, and it has little to do with reducing tax. You need to implement drug and alcohol testing in your workplace.
Can you legally implement random drug and alcohol testing in your NT workplace?
One of the first things people wonder when considering implementing drug and alcohol testing is whether they legally can do so. In simple terms, the answer is yes, although not necessarily for all workplaces.
Workplace drug and alcohol testing in Darwin and across the Northern Territory is primarily conducted to enhance safety, not merely to identify employees using drugs or alcohol. While you can’t control what employees do in their personal time, you have the right to ensure they are fit to perform their job safely.
Therefore, if safety is a critical concern in your workplace, you can implement drug and alcohol testing.
Before you do implement drug and alcohol testing…
Before you do rush out and implement drug and alcohol testing in your Darwin or Northern Territory workplace, there’s a critical thing you need to do. You must develop or update your drug and alcohol policy.
Conducting drug and alcohol testing in your workplace without having a drug and alcohol policy will leave your business open to issues down the track, particularly when dealing with positive drug testing results or employees who refuse drug testing.
A workplace drug and alcohol testing policy will provide details such as:
- The type of drug testing you’ll undertake in your Northern Territory business. Random drug testing is perhaps the most well-known, but you can also conduct pre-employment testing, testing of employees who are suspected of being under the influence and testing following an accident, incident or near miss.
- You’ll also need to detail whether you’ll use saliva drug testing (our recommended method) or urine drug testing as your drug testing methodology.
- What happens when an employee records a confirmed positive drug or alcohol test. What will the consequences be for first time offenders and subsequent offences.
- How will you educate your employees about your workplace’s drug and alcohol policy and the dangers of coming to work under the influence.
- What support will you provide employees who are having issues with drugs.
Implementing drug and testing in your Darwin or Northern Territory workplace
Developing a drug and alcohol policy, educating employees and implementing drug and testing is a big task. Fortunately, Integrity Sampling is here to help. We conduct drug and alcohol testing in Darwin and across Northern Territory. We can assist with all aspects of drug and alcohol management, including the development of drug and alcohol policies.
If you’re ready to improve safety this financial year, we’re ready to assist. Give us a call on 1300 725 482 to get the ball rolling.
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Ready to implement drug and alcohol testing in your Darwin or Northern Territory workplace? Make sure you develop or update your drug and alcohol policy before you do.
