Drug and alcohol use: when zero tolerance is tolerable

Key Points:

When safety is critical, employers may be in a stronger position to discipline and even dismiss employees who return positive test results for drugs, even if they're not impaired at work.

Where safety-critical work is being performed, and testing for impairment related to a particular substance is not a precise science, a zero tolerance policy for any positive test result may be appropriate. That's the lesson from a recent decision of the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (Sharp v BCS Infrastructure Support Pty Limited [2015] FWCFB 1033). It's an approach that has subsequently been endorsed by the Full Federal Court in Toms v Harbour City Ferries Pty Limited [2015] FCAFC 35.