Blog

He aquí algunos elementos de reflexión ...

1. La correcta manipulación y almacenamiento de alcohol y otros registros de pruebas de drogas pueden evitar problemas mayores. Es posible que desee considerar el almacenamiento de dichos registros separados de los empleados’ expedientes del personal para evitar cualquier registro que se está viendo inadvertidamente. El acceso a este tipo de registros debe estar restringido al personal clave que "necesitan saber".
2. Alcohol y otras pruebas de drogas deben llevarse a cabo en una habitación privada donde transeúntes no pueden escuchar lo que se está discutiendo. Ensure unauthorised persons cannot view test record documentation during testing.
3. Medication can be managed in your workplace without staff being forced to disclose full details of the type of medications they use. Procedures to ensure this is handled properly can be provided by an experienced drug and alcohol testing program consultant.
4. Persons conducting testing processes should be fully trained in, and understand, the potential dangers of breaches of employee privacy and confidentiality.

Case Study

ACME Pty Ltd appointed “Sally” from the Human Resources department as an “in house” drug & probador de alcohol. She received generic training as per the Australian Quality Training Framework to qualify as a collector under the relevant Australian Standard. This training “ticked a box”, however in practice, Sally felt uncomfortable with requesting details of staff use of medications, alcohol and drugs. Sally proceeded to fulfil her duties as requested of her. A problem soon occurred. Sally had not received adequate training regarding privacy & confidentiality in the context of drug and alcohol testing.

During testing one morning she concluded her test with “Bill” from the accounts department. As Bill left the testing room, “John” from operations took his place ready for his test. Whilst sitting opposite Sally, John was able to read the test documentation Sally was working on which related to Bill and his use of alcohol in the previous 24 horas.

Sally should have protected the test documentation from prying eyes. A serious breach of privacy and confidentiality had occurred!