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johnmurray  
#1 Posted : 02 December 2018 11:56:47(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
johnmurray

A 62-year-old former union representative and bus driver for over 20 years, suffering from diabetes and hypertension, with an exemplary employment record has won his unfair dismissal claim after a random drugs test by his employer First Essex Buses implausibly showed that he tested positive for cocaine. http://unitelive.org/bus...ir-dismissal-drugs-test/

A Kurdziel  
#2 Posted : 03 December 2018 09:27:17(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

From what I have read this was not the case of ‘botched’ test. Here it was a case of a false positive which is always a risk with such tests. The problem was that the employer decided to sack the employee solely on the basis of this one test. They did not take in account anything else such as his exemplary record and the fact that there was no other evidence of his drug taking. His explanation g for showing positive for the saliva test was that he handled notes which could have been contaminated with cocaine and he could have ingested small quantities which was what showed up in the test: a plausible explanation.  He paid for his own independent test (looking at the presence of drugs in a hair sample) which cameo up negative. The employer (or rather their HR department) decided to ignore this and went ahead and sacked him and refused to reinstate him despite evidence that this may have been a false positive.

This is classic example of where the process takes precedent over any sensible approach to management. He failed the test and the process says he had to be sacked: A dangerous unthinking approach to anything really.

Messey  
#3 Posted : 03 December 2018 12:01:19(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Messey

Its an absolutely scandalous for anyone to be treated, but to be expected from almost any HR Dept as in my experience many seem wired to follow flow charts rather than common sense.

My cynical side says that as he was a former Union Rep, I wonder if he had upset management in the past, and they were only too pleased to show him the door. Who knows?

Whatever happened here, as somebody who alos has regular drugs tests at work, I am glad justice (rather than common sense) has prevailed 

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