Employers warned of safety and productivity implications
Workplace drug test results indicating the presence of methamphetamine are on the rise this year, according to the Drug Detection Agency (TDDA) prompting warnings about safety for employers.
The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a privately run drug testing business in New Zealand and Australia, recently revealed that meth detections in March hit 24.9%, following an increasing trend this year:
By location, the Central North recorded the highest detection rate for meth in workplace drug tests, with 30.6%. It is followed by:
Glenn Dobson, CEO of TDDA, said the findings show that more people are turning to meth when it comes to available drugs.
"Our frontline data tells a confronting story, meth use is more than a big-city issue. We're seeing higher proportions of meth detections in smaller regions like the Central North, The Lakes and Taranaki," Dobson said in a statement.
Dobson warned that these findings have serious implications for workplace safety and productivity.
According to the CEO, employers and regulators may need to reassess risk exposure and response.
"This is about safety as well as businesses and communities under pressure. Employers must stay alert, have clear workplace substance policies, and be ready to act on suspicions compliantly and quickly," he said.
The TDDA outlined three steps that employers should take when they suspect meth use in the workplace:
Dobson previously spoke with HRD and underscored the importance of sticking closely to their policy when it comes to drug testing to avoid litigation.
"If your policy says, 'We must do ABC' every time you do a drug test, then make sure you do an ABC no matter what because that's where a lot of the challenges come from in employment courts," the CEO said.
"[The challenge with remediation] is that the policy says 'XYZ' and the employer doesn't follow their own policy and then that creates a lot of distrust and it creates a lot of challenges around the process itself."
