Union Wins Important Drug Testing Ruling

An arbitrator has recently ruled that random drug testing using saliva swabs at Imperial Oil is "an unjustified affront to the dignity and privacy of employees". Arbitrator Michel Picher ordered Imperial Oil to stop all random drug tests at its Nanticoke refinery as part of his decision.

"subjecting all employees to random drug testing by means of a [saliva]
swab test simply cannot be reconciled with the well established, predominant
Canadian arbitral jurisprudence which holds that, in a safety sensitive working
environment, drug and alcohol testing can be required of an individual employee
by his or her employer only where there is reasonable and probable cause to do
so, or where there has been an accident or incident which would justify such a
measure."