- May 11, 2021
- Non-IA Decisions of Interest
The Supreme Court ruled that an employer policy of random alcohol testing of workers just because they work in a dangerous work environment was an unreasonable exercise of management rights under the collective agreement. The Supreme Court determined that the expected safety gains associated with the employer’s policy of random testing were “minimal at best” while the impact on employee privacy was much more severe. The Supreme Court reasoned that an employer can impose a rule with disciplinary consequences only if the need for the rule outweighs the harmful impact on employees’ privacy rights. In this case, the Supreme Court determined that that the employer’s random drug testing policy could not meet this threshold.