More employers consider drug tests for employees when new law takes effect
Regulations set for camera surveillance and e-mail privacy
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Increasing numbers of employers are considering testing their employees for drug use when new legislation on workplace privacy takes effect at the beginning of October.
No massive surge in testing is expected, but those in professions linked with transport and national defence, for instance, will be more likely to be tested for the use of illegal drugs.
There has already been a considerable increase in drug testing in recent years, but this is the first time that legislation has been passed to regulate the practice.
Under the new law, a drug test can be required if an employer has reason to believe that an employee is addicted to a drug, or that he or she is working under the influence.
Under the new rules, an employee can be compelled to take a drug test if the job requires considerable dexterity or independent thinking. The work must also be such that intoxication or drug dependency would cause a serious threat to life or health, or would carry the risk of other serious harm.
Job applicants can be required to produce a clean drug test when applying for work with similar requirements.
Timo Koskinen, a lawyer for the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) suspects that some companies already implement drug testing policies that are much more extensive than the new law allows.
He notes that while some companies test all employees, the basic idea of the new law is that the need for a drug test should be ascertained on a case-by-case basis.
The law on workplace privacy also sets rules for the protection of the privacy of employees’ e-mail, and for camera surveillance at work places.
The aim of the rules is to protect the privacy of an employee’s e-mail. Under the new law there are certain conditions in which an employer can read an employee’s important messages while that employee is away.
This can only happen if the employee has declined the options of either routing his or her holiday e-mail to another address, or of an automatic response to those sending e-mail during the employee’s absence giving the date when the intended recipient returns, and information on how to contact someone else in the company.
If an employer finds it necessary to look into an employee’s e-mail, he or she is required to give a written account of what messages were accessed.
Camera surveillance will be allowed at workplaces for security purposes. Cameras must not be used to keep tabs on specific employees, and they must not be installed in toilets or dressing rooms, for instance.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 23.8.2004 - TODAY |
 More employers consider drug tests for employees when new law takes effect |
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