Impairment Testing: Another Tool To Ensure Workplace Safety

Employers should be aware of an additional tool that can be used to detect employees who are impaired at work. "Impairment Testing" may be a more effective, less invasive way to measure employee impairment.

In general, drug and alcohol testing programs are implemented with the best of intentions - to ensure workplace safety and decrease accidents. Yet to date, employers – including those with employees in safety-sensitive positions – have encountered resistance to the implementation of these programs. Judges, arbitrators and tribunals have thwarted employers’ attempts to implement these programs, pointing out (among other problems) the lack of connection between a positive test result and actual impairment at work. Yet it is in everyone’s best interests to continue to pursue the original goal: ensuring the safety of employees and the public.