The Law of Work
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

Random Drug & Alcohol Testing Struck Down at Teck Coal

by David Doorey February 1, 2018
written by David Doorey February 1, 2018

Arbitrator Strikes Down Tech Coal's Random Drug & Alcohol Testing Policy

Arbitrator Strikes Down Tech Coal’s Random Drug & Alcohol Testing Policy


 

February 1 2018

This week, a senior arbitrator in British Columbia ruled that Tech Coal’s random drug and alcohol testing policy violated the collective agreement with the United Steelworkers and ordered the testing to stop.  Here is a story from the CBC on the decision.  This is the latest in a series of decisions ruling that random drug and/or alcohol testing policies interfered with employee privacy rights protected by collective agreements, including the 2013 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Irving Pulp & Paper.
As discussed in Chapter 43 of The Law of Work: Complete Edition (“The Collective Agreement”), labour arbitrators deal with these testing cases through the lens of the so-called “KVP Test”, which requires that rules promulgated by a unionized employer be “reasonable” in all of the circumstances.  To meet this standard, employers must be able to demonstrate that there is a serious workplace problem related to drug and alcohol use and that there do not exist other means to address the problem that impinge less on employee privacy rights.  Tech Coal was unable to demonstrate this and therefore their testing policy was struck down.
Here is Arbitrator Kenzie’s full decision.
And my thanks to the union’s lawyer, Rob Champagne, for proving Law of Work blog with his executive summary of the decision, which you can find here.  I can’t describe the decision any clearer than this, so I will leave my post at that.

1 comment
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

previous post
Attempt to Use Fake Unions to Block Real Union Fails in Alberta
next post
Solving the Mystery of the Waitress Who Was "Reinstated" for "Not Smiling Enough"

You may also like

This Blog Entry is About the Lunacy of...

July 21, 2019

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

The Folly of Not Voting to Strike in...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 337 other subscribers

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

David J. Doorey🇨🇦Follow

Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law #Gig to the masses. Alpaca ❤️ @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @LWPHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

David J. Doorey🇨🇦
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
12m

FYI, the School of HRM at @yorkuniversity will be hiring up to 2 tenure-stream profs including possibly one at the Associate Professor level.

Jobs will be posted in fall for start July 1, 2023. If you know anyone in the market pass along.

https://www.yorku.ca/laps/shrm/

Reply on Twitter 1558834355442552832Retweet on Twitter 1558834355442552832Like on Twitter 1558834355442552832Twitter 1558834355442552832
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
14h

If one these dimwits was a Sacha Baron Cohen-like comedian playing the role of a Republican would any one notice?

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸@patriottakes

Marjorie Taylor Greene believes generating electricity from “wind turbines and solar panels” will result in the loss of air conditioning and home appliances.

Greene: “I like the lights on. I want to stay up later at night. I don’t want to have to go to bed when the sun sets.”

Reply on Twitter 1558630572783722497Retweet on Twitter 15586305727837224972Like on Twitter 15586305727837224974Twitter 1558630572783722497
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
16h

A student told me she is translating chapters of my book into Korean because she learned a lot and wants it as a reference but English is her second language.

Any Korean speakers out there? What does this say?

일의 법칙

Reply on Twitter 1558595466182393858Retweet on Twitter 1558595466182393858Like on Twitter 15585954661823938582Twitter 1558595466182393858
Load More...

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Climate and Just Transition
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Sports Labour
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.