Drug and Alcohol Testing at Work

drug and alcohol testing at the workplace

Drug Testing – Keeping Your Workplace Safe

Why is drug and alcohol testing so important at the workplace?

The figures may vary slightly across states, but many studies and surveys have shown that a significant percentage of drug users are employed and active in the Australian workplace.

Understandably, a growing number of employers are actively implementing measures to curb drug use and abuse at work. Many business owners are now putting drug policies into place, and these policies should include actively testing for drugs.

Drug and alcohol testing has to be an essential part of any drug policy in the workplace. It is the only way you can find out who among your workforce are under the influence of drugs or alcohol while on the job. This is crucial, because drug users and abusers are more likely to pose a threat to the health and safety of everyone in the workplace.

You may also run the risk of legal liabilities if an accident at your company is found to be drug-related.

Avoid Legal Liabilities

Take for example a worker who uses crystal methamphetamine or ice on a regular basis. As we all know, ice has a number of adverse effects on the human body. It makes a user’s body temperature rise, triggers paranoia, mood swings and violent behaviour, among other things. Now imagine that worker to be employed in the industrial sector, operating heavy machinery. If left undetected, that worker could cause an accident that may result in workplace injuries and even death.

As an employer, HR or OHS officer, you are responsible for the safety of staff and the general public. Moreover, workplace accidents means higher insurance premiums and even costlier lawsuits.

Our mission at Safework Laboratories is to help you secure and safe-guard your company and workforce from the impact of drug and alcohol related incidents at work. Our comprehensive drug testing services are leading the drug safety industry in Australia today.

Personalised Drug and Alcohol Testing At Your Workplace

Our Alcohol and Other Drug Testing in the workplace service is comprehensive, reliable and designed to minimise operational down time on your work site.

We have put years of experience into creating cutting edge screening solutions that use the very latest thinking and the most up-to-date technology.

Because no two companies are the same, we can apply different approaches to cater for your drug screening needs.

This might include catering for specific concerns among your workforce, such as personal privacy, job demands, working hours and more. We can also perform anonymous testing, such as surface testing or wastewater analysis.

Our passionate team is always on hand to explain, discuss and interpret results for you, with our own Chief Toxicologist Dr Phil Tynan on hand for additional support and reference when needed.

We Support Many Types of Drug Screening

There are many reasons for drug screening and various approaches to it.

Among others, we provide the following:

Pre-employment
Blanket
Random
Fit for work
Return to work
Inductions
Pre-site visit
Call out/accident/incident

What We Drug Test For

The Australian Standards prescribe the drugs we can test for. In addition, we can only do drug testing at work for what is in a company’s policies and procedures. This could include synthetic drugs, such as synthetic cannabinoids and designer drugs, if your policy allows for it. Under the Australian / New Zealand Standards for testing, AS/NZS 4308:2008 (urine) and AS/NZS 4760:2019 (oral fluid), we can test for various drugs, including the following:

Stimulants

Depressants

Opiates (heroin)
Cannabis (marijuana, THC)
Benzodiazepine (sleeping tablets, relaxants) Only in the AS/NZS4308:2008 not in the AS/NZS 4760:2019

How We Perform Drug and Alcohol Testing

Our trained team of Field Collection Officers performs the sample collections for drug and alcohol testing. All our field officers have been carefully selected to be highly professional, yet sensitive to the needs of your staff and company.

Our team completes quality controls under AS/NZS 4308:2008 and AS/NZS 4760:2019, as well as standard integrity checks and temperature checks.

Alcohol Testing

We use high quality breathalysers to ensure efficient and dependable results. Our breathalysers meet the most rigorous Australian standards (AS 3547:2019) and shut down if they are out of calibration. In this way, nobody can challenge the test results.

Drug Testing

Oral fluid or urine screening- our highly trained field staff are able to conduct drug tests using either oral fluid or urine.

We can also offer a “collection only” service, where no screening is done on the worksite. We collect urine or oral fluid and package it for our own NATA accredited laboratories.

Safework Laboratories field staff are able to test for a wide range synthetic and designer drugs through our laboratory-based analysis. For more information call our office and ask to speak with your client service representative or account manager.

Australia-wide Labs Network for Fast Confirmation Testing

map of drug testing lab locations in Australia

Drug screening samples that require further testing (non negatives) after they are screened, are packaged and express-sent to one of our own NATA accredited laboratories.

We want to minimise employee down time. Therefore we guarantee a 24 hour turnaround time of results from the time a sample reaches our laboratories. This saves you precious time and money.

Our drug testing laboratories are strategically positioned around Australia:

All our drug testing labs equipped to carry out the analysis using Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS).

Where We Screen for Drug Use

mobile drug testing labs at mining site — Our mobile testing labs can come to you

Mobile Clinics

Safe and hygienic solutions set up quickly for onsite drug tests by our experts for minimum disruption. Each clinic is staffed by one or two friendly Field Collection Officers, depending on your needs on the day.

In-House

Conduct drug and alcohol screening discretely and swiftly with in-house solutions using private, hygienic facilities at your workplace.

How can we help you?

Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help make your workplace safer. Implement an effective scheme for workplace on-site drug testing – easy, cost-effective and discreet.