Even workers in dangerous occupations like firefighting can't be made to undergo random drug testing with cause, an Ontario judge ruled..Blacklock's Reporter says the decision came on an appeal by firefighters at the Ottawa International Airport..“The Airport Authority in this case provided no evidence of a problem of drug use among employees at the Ottawa airport,” wrote Justice Katherine Swinton of the Ontario Divisional Court..“Indeed it refused the Firefighters Association’s request for information about the prevalence of drug or alcohol use in the workplace.”.The Airport Authority in 2018 introduced an Alcohol And Drug Policy following Parliament’s legalization of marijuana. The policy stated: “Unannounced random testing for the safety sensitive positions will be carried out at a 50% selection rate for drugs and 10% selection rate for alcohol per year.”.Workers in safety sensitive positions like firefighting who refused a random test were threatened with “a variety of disciplinary measures” including mandatory counselling or firing..The Ottawa Airport Professional Aviation Firefighters Association challenged the order as a breach of privacy..“The dangerous nature of the workplace has not alone justified the imposition of random alcohol and drug testing,” said the court..“Arbitrators have required evidence of an elevated safety risk arising from alcohol or drug use in the workplace.”.“An employer may unilaterally impose a rule on employees if they face disciplinary consequences as a result of non-compliance only if the rule is reasonable in the circumstances.”.There was no evidence Ottawa firefighters were marijuana users, she added..The Supreme Court in a landmark 2013 ruling struck down random breathalyzer tests as an invasion of workers’ privacy..Judges ruled a Saint John pulp mill had no justification for the practice and that random testing could only occur with cause or consent..To date only one federal employer, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, is known to have introduced random testing since Parliament legalized marijuana.
