Employee Drug Testing: Implications for Policy

Michael Webb

A recent survey of drug abuse in the workplace showed that regular drug users have twice the rate of absenteeism, four times the rate of accidents, and are three times more likely to be late for work than those who do not use drugs.

This has sparked employers’ interest in the prospect of employee drug testing, while labour organisations have mobilised resistance against any proposals to screen workers for drug use.

This paper attempts to tease out the policy implications of employment substance abuse testing (ESAT). After locating ESAT in its technological context and reviewing the evidence that substance use affects workplace performance, the magnitude of the problem in this country and its associated costs are examined.

The paper argues that while ESAT is a morally neutral technology, it has the potential to corrode traditional understandings of the employer-employee relationship and to import an unhelpful ideological component into the New Zealand industrial relations scheme. Finally, policies to help reduce the problem of substance-impaired workers are considered for their potential application to New Zealand.