Following on from last week’s post ridiculing the Guardian’s claim that employers were using drugs tests at work to avoid paying redundancy costs. It would appear that the Guardian’s claims were based on a very flaky evidence base indeed. The leading tester in the market, a Company called Concateno, writes a very convincing rebuttal to the Guardian’s assertions here.

Drugs and alcohol testing at work is a very sensitive area and employers, in our experience, approach the matter in a sensitive way. Most employers will offer a period of amnesty before any random tests are introduced where employees with alcohol or drugs dependency issues can step forward on a confidential basis. Most employers would then make a referral to occupational health, counselling or other specialist assistance for that employee.

The practice of most employers with random drug and alcohol tests is so far removed from the Guardian’s conspiracy theory as to make that theory comical.