Call for wider drug testing in workplace

Drug testing needs to become more accepted in the workplace, says the New Zealand Drug Detection Agency, which is opening a branch in Rotorua next month.
General manager Leigh Sefton says drug testing in workplaces is a grey area for most companies - but it doesn't have to be.
"Most employers don't want to know.
"They just don't want to go there," he said.
His comments follow a story in Saturday's Daily Post, which revealed that a local business owner would hire workers from out of town because he was sick of having constant issues with local workers who take drugs and fail to show up for work.
Mr Sefton said more companies needed to initiate pre-employment drug testing, have stand-alone drug policies and offer more education and awareness around drug testing in the workplace to their staff.
His agency is a nationwide service that performs drug testing for companies pre-employment, post-incidents or accidents, for reasonable cause or suspicion or at random.
Forestry Services North Island owner Charlie Batt runs a pruning and planting operation in the Bay of Plenty and said many staff either didn't show up for work, or if they did, were under the influence of drugs.
He employs 14 people on short-term contracts for pruning and planting and is considering looking for staff from outside Rotorua for the next series of pruning contracts, starting next month.
Mr Batt said too many workers thought they could get away with being on drugs at work and he wanted more power to be able to drug test staff.
Pre-employment drug testing was an option worth trying but he wasn't sure if it would help.
"Going by the experience from other employers in the same industry who do it, they just end up with no one."
But he said a service like the drug detection agency would be handy in Rotorua as he had not had much luck locating anyone who could help him.
"It would be good to have someone to hire in the region.
"That would be handy for us."
Mr Sefton said most companies just didn't know what their options were.
He said ensuring awareness and education surrounding drug testing was about fairness for all parties.
"Education is key. There's a lot of misinformation out there. It's not about hire and fire. It's about retaining your workforce."
Mr Sefton said companies looked at drug testing as an unnecessary compliance cost but the positives far outweighed the cost.
Companies who got into the act of checking employees could prevent workplace accidents, reduce insurance claims, reduce theft and fraud, see lower staff turnover, increased productivity and raise staff morale.