CEP Journal/CALM

Despite court rulings on drug and alcohol testing in the workplace that have consistently gone in favour of employees’ rights, Imperial Oil continues to try to impose an extreme drug and alcohol testing policy on CEP members at the Strathcona Refinery in Alberta.

"We certainly don’t condone impairment in the workplace," says CEP Local 777 secretary-treasurer Les Butler, "but there are other, more successful substance abuse programs available that wouldn’t be as invasive."

Labour board, human rights and court rulings support this position.

In a 1996 decision on Imperial Oil’s policy, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said the policy authorized discipline and firing on the basis of a testing program that was neither fair nor accurate in assessing the worker’s capacity to do the job.

The case ended up at the Human Rights Commission after an employee at the Sarnia Imperial refinery was demoted and subjected to monitoring after he reported that he once had a problem with alcohol.

In a separate ruling involving a CEP local, the B.C. Labour Relations Board also refused to endorse Imperial’s drug testing policy.

The significance of these decisions is that while employers can test employees for cause, such as after a significant workplace accident or during an employee’s drug rehabilitation program, random mandatory drug testing is not justifiable even for safety-sensitive positions.

So why does Imperial Oil continue to push workplace drug and alcohol testing?

Their policy is more driven by politics due to the public backlash over their handling of the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989 and the need to improve their public image, than a real fear of drug and alcohol abuse," says Butler.

"If this policy is struck down. as we expect it will be, Imperial Oil would likely downplay any mention of the human rights violations that flowed from it. It would likely downplay the union’s attempt to work with the company to develop a program that would accomplish the same goals without violating the human rights of their employees. As well, there would probably be no mention of the fact that their employees are also very concerned citizens and members of the community who want to safeguard the public and their families from potential human and environmental tragedies."

"Surely Imperial’s policy cannot survive these ongoing legal challenges," says Butler. "What good is our judicial system if powerful corporations are allowed to rise above it?"