Alberta Court Upholds Express Employee Agreement On Random Drug And Alcohol Testing

Alberta Court of Queen's Bench finds Random Drug and Alcohol Testing Clause to be Enforceable.

Employers will have welcome news from the recent decision of Phillips v Westcan Bulk Transport Ltd., where the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench (the "Court") held that random drug and alcohol testing is permissible if there is an express provision in an employment agreement to do so.  Further, the Court held that in the absence of such a provision, the employer still would have been justified in unilaterally imposing random drug and alcohol testing because of the dangerous, remote and unsupervised nature of the employee's work, and the significant incidence of drug and alcohol use in the workplace.