Illegal drug use and alcohol abuse is a social issue and in a highly hazard environment, such as construction, the effects can have a significant impact on safety.
Strong policies and robust testing regimes are required to ensure that the effects of such use and abuse do not pose a risk to safety of people working on our construction sites.
A regime of 100% pre-employment drugs and alcohol testing has been implemented on the Hinkley Workers Campus project to give assurance of a safe and healthy workforce. At induction, if candidates cannot demonstrate that they have had a negative drug and alcohol testing, Laing O’Rourke’s drug and alcohol tester and UKAS accredited laboratory provider carries out a pre-employment drug and alcohol test.
Over 2,000 inductions have been carried out on the project and the failure rate, while higher than originally expected at 7% is actually below the national average failure rate at around 10%.
Cocaine use is the most common cause (90%) of non-negative results for illegal drugs. Every person tested who fails a drug and alcohol test is a potential hazard, to themselves or their colleagues, and has been prevented from working on our project.
A random and post-incident drug and alcohol programme is also implemented on the project, covering staff and workforce alike, to ensure that the current working environment is maintained.
A regime of 100% pre-employment Drug and Alcohol testing has been implemented on the Hinkley Workers Campus project to give assurance of a safe and healthy workforce.
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