White (Collar) Lines

Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that drug tests are finding favour in the white-collar sector.

While workplace tests are formally legislated in the mining and transport industries, more and more offices are showing an interest in testing employees for alcohol and other drugs.

“In one case a fatigued office worker put an electric stapler through his thumb, while in a separate incident a worker came back from lunch after a couple of drinks and got his tie caught in a Paper shredder,” says Tony Graham, the Australian Workplace Drug Testing Services director.

The amount of drug tests Mr Graham’s company conducted increased 25 per cent last year.

Graham also says many workers are not aware that using “legal uppers and downers” such as caffeine tablets and antihistamines could be dangerous. According to him, 90 percent of positive test readings were caused by legal drugs.