TTC employees to undergo random drug testing in 2017

By News Staff

Toronto Transit Commission workers will undergo random drug and alcohol testing starting March 1, 2017.

The $1.3-million program was recently approved by the commission at its board meeting on Nov. 30.

The commission says more than 10,000 TTC employees will be subject to testing, including all operators and maintenance employees, designated supervisors, managers and executives or anyone whose job has accountability or responsibility for the safety of employees and the public.

The TTC says it will only test for likely impairment at the time of the test, adding it has no interest in what employees do on their own free time unless it impacts on their performance in the workplace.

“The TTC has continued to see an increase in the number of reasonable cause and post-incident positive and refusal test results since 2011,” the transit agency said in a statement released Thursday afternoon. “This is not acceptable and the TTC cannot wait any longer to act. The safety of its employees, customers and all road users — motorists, cyclists and pedestrians — is paramount in all that it does.”

In 2010, the TTC put in place a policy which called for testing before an employee is hired, as well as testing for reasonable cause and after an incident, violation or treatment in “safety sensitive” positions.

The TTC says since 2011, it has seen a 200-per-cent increase in workplace impairment and test refusals.

Bob Kinnear, the president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union argued at the November meeting that random drug testing is “not effective” and “not consitutional.”

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