Random Drug And Alcohol Testing: Further Guidance Will Have To Wait

Earlier this fall, the Alberta Court of Appeal provided the latest in the ongoing random testing saga from Alberta's oilsands. However, observers who had been anticipating some substantive guidance from the Court of Appeal may have to wait for another day.

The story began back in 2012 when Suncor Energy Inc. ("Suncor") announced that it would be implementing a random drug and alcohol testing program at some of its sites near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The bargaining agent for many of the affected workers on site, Unifor Local 707A ("Unifor"), launched a grievance arguing, among other things, that the policy violated the privacy rights of the workers. Over 23 days of arbitration in 2013, the parties called extensive and complex evidence regarding the pervasiveness of drug and alcohol use as well as the nature of the dangerous work conducted on site. The following year, a majority of the arbitration panel ruled in favour of the union. The majority, basing its decision on