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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:28 pm Post subject: HB firms weed out cannabis users |
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HB firms weed out cannabis users
CHRIS GARDNER
As many as two in five potential workers for Hawke's Bay's big employers are losing out on a job after testing positive for drug use.
At Pan Pac Forest Products, Whirinaki, five out of 12 potential employees missed out on jobs in the past two months because they had traces of cannabis in their blood.
Before employing anybody, the company tests for a suite of controlled drugs including cannabis, amphetamine, benzodiazepines and LSD.
Peter Reftieaux, who works in the company's compliance and employee relations division, said the failure rate in the last two months had been unusually high, as it was usually below 20 percent.
"We do end up dropping the odd good one," he said.
"But we are only testing those people who are put on the second short list for jobs."
Pan Pac introduced drug testing four years ago, and also had the right to test staff who managers suspected were under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
A year ago, when Wairoa meatworks Affco introduced drug testing for potential staff, eight out of 20 failed, plant manager Mike Laurence said. But the company had not employed anybody since January and he would expect the failure rate to be much lower.
He said drug use could limit the number of people who could be employed.
"It will be difficult to find enough people to run the night shift when it starts."
At Heinz Wattie's in Hastings, company spokesperson Alex Ingle said the estimated drug-test failure rate was around 20 percent, although the company did not keep statistics. Workers involved in accidents could also find themselves being tested for drug use if cannabis was suspected to be a contributing factor, she said.
When PPCS/Richmond introduced mandatory drug testing before offering workers jobs, the North Island's human resources manager, Gary Williams, said the failure rate was as high as 50 percent, in the first week. But in the year since the compulsory urine tests were introduced, it had dropped to below 10 percent.
"People found out that we are testing for drugs," he said.
"It did not take long for the word to get around."
PPCS/Richmond no longer had people coming into the business who were a potential problem as far as drugs were concerned, he said.
"It's not based on getting people out of the workforce, it's based on getting rid of the abuse."
The drug testing was part of a series of health and safety improvements the company had introduced recently, which had improved its health and safety record.
Before the end of the year, PPCS/Richmond plans to introduce mandatory drug testing for staff involved in accidents on the site.
The company's Dunedin-based general manager for human resources, Jane Leahy, compared testing to random breath testing on the roads.
"In the same way that random breath testing drew a behaviour change we would hope that if this became the norm across the country we would see the same positive changes," she said.
SOURCE...
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Jackie
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 32
Location: amsterdam
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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it''
s sad to see that this company is introducing draconian american practices that really have nothing to do with the proper functioning of their personel into the free and social country of Aotearoa,New Zealand! 
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