If you were an owner, manager or other senior officer of a business in Victoria and your conduct negligently caused the death of an employee or others on your work site, you could face up to 25 years in prison. The penalty in NSW is the same. Meanwhile, in Queensland and the ACT, you could...
Category: Drug and alcohol testing
News and views on workplace drug and alcohol testing
Workplace drug and alcohol testing the only way to know
Every day, hundreds of thousands of Australians head to work in their safety-focussed roles. Most do so well prepared to work, but some are not. In fact, some definitely shouldn’t be going to work. They’re the employees who are affected by alcohol or drugs. The employees that eventually will be detected by drug and alcohol...
Travelling far and wide for drug and alcohol testing
Integrity Sampling travels far and wide to conduct drug and alcohol testing in workplaces, and so to it seems does Queensland Police for its roadside testing. A group of officers from Highway Patrol Mount Isa recently travelled to Birdsville – a trip of over 7 hours – for their annual races. According to the My...
Drug and alcohol testing is no laughing matter… Or is it?
We understand that drug and alcohol testing can be a pretty dry subject for some people, so for our last post before Christmas we thought it best to try to add a little humour to an otherwise serious subject. So here is a humourous look at some drug and alcohol testing fails and other interesting...
No holidays for drug and alcohol testing
Christmas and New Year are always a great time to relax and socialise. Hopefully you have parties to go to, friends to catch up with and perhaps even holidays to look forward to. And if you enjoy a drink and perhaps even taking illegal drugs, letting your hair down a little more won’t hurt… Or...
Mount Gambier truck driver fails drug testing
It’s often said that a person who represents themselves in court has a fool for a client, but that probably wasn’t the silliest decision made by a Mount Gambier truck driver: In 2019 he had failed roadside drug testing while driving on the job. According to an article in The Advertiser, the truck driver was...
Drug and alcohol testing of paramedics in Tasmania
An article in The Advocate has highlighted that there is a lot of support of random drug and alcohol testing for paramedics in Tasmania, but the details of how it should work was proving “quite difficult”. A witness in an inquest said the power to conduct random alcohol and drug tests on paramedics needs to...
NSW truck driver in meth double trouble
A NSW truck driver who was caught driving with meth in his system twice on consecutive days was also caught for working more than the standard maximum work time, only a few weeks before. According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, the incidents occured during March and April this year. In late March, Kulbir...
When workplace drug testing and the community mix
When Integrity Sampling consultants conduct their workplace drug testing, most of the tests are carried out ‘behind closed doors’. The tests take place in places such as factories, mines, warehouses and farms. However, testing can also be conducted away from the traditional workplace, for example when drug testing transportation or aviation workers. As we highlighted...
Penalties for failing drug and alcohol testing in WA increase
With all the media attention on COVID 19, there has been small but important changes in WA that may have gone unnoticed. The changes include an increase in penalties for failing roadside drug and alcohol testing. While the first change, which came into effect on 1st July, may be small the same can’t be said...