Randox issues drug and alcohol testing advice
Randox Testing Services is a specialist drug and alcohol testing company working in both the workplace and medico-legal sectors.
It operates across the UK and Ireland, with a global network of trained collection officers, and can test for a wide variety of drugs to meet clients’ needs.
The company cites research suggesting that drug and alcohol use in the workplace can affect morale, product quality, productivity and increase the risk of workplace accidents.
“By not addressing the problem, employers create liability for themselves,” said Randox Testing Services.
“Organisations have a duty to protect their employees by ensuring the health, safety and welfare of employees. By not addressing the high occurrences of drug and alcohol use impacting work, employers fail to meet these standards.”
The company highlights employers’ legal obligations to determine what hazards exist in the workplace and implement prevention and control measures.
“By addressing drug and alcohol use in the workplace and implementing a testing policy, an employer creates safer working conditions for everyone,” it said.
“Employers should be aware of warning signs that could indicate drug or alcohol misuse, as this can help prevent accidents before they occur.
“The warning signs are: frequent absences; loss of work ethic/progress; change in behaviour; performance or conduct issues [and] higher occurrence of accidents or near misses.”
There are many benefits to having a workplace drug and alcohol testing policy, it adds, highlighting a study which found that companies in the construction industry experience a 51 per cent reduction in incident rates within two years of implementation of such a policy.
“Different types of testing offer different services and assurances to employers and can meet a variety of needs. The different types of testing policies available to employers are: pre-employment testing; random testing; with-cause testing; post-incident testing [and] abstinence testing,” said the company.
“The most popular workplace testing policy is random testing. This test offers the most effective deterrent of drug abuse or alcohol misuse among employees, due to the inability to prepare ahead of time.”
