Suncor Loses On Random Alcohol And Drug Testing

The long-awaited arbitration decision is in, and the result is a loss for random alcohol and drug testing.  (See the Decision here and the Dissent here.)

Suncor had tried to implement a random drug and alcohol testing policy with respect to all of its  safety-sensitive employees in the oil sands.  The union resisted and was able to get an injunction from the Alberta courts to prevent implementation of the policy until the arbitration was completed.

A majority of the three member arbitration panel ruled against Suncor.  They found that there was insufficient evidence of a problem with alcohol and drug use affecting the workplace, and that the evidence was lacking on the issue of whether random testing would help address whatever problem there was.  Meanwhile, a dissenting member of the panel found there was compelling evidence (including three alcohol or drug related fatalities and 149 positive post-incident alcohol and drug tests, in 10 years) to justify random