A recent ruling by Fair Work Australia has found that making employees submit to urine tests for drug use is “unjust and unreasonable” as the tests can detect drug usage from the weekend. Union members argued that employees could fail a urine test even if they are not still under the influence of a particular substance because cannabis, for example, can remain in the body for up to 90 days. Oral swab tests will now be used instead of urine tests, which only detect THC a few hours after consumption when the user is still impaired and when their ability to do their job will be most affected. Drug testing of employees is becoming increasingly common in New Zealand in certain job sectors such as aviation and mining where the ability of employees to carry out their work safely is paramount. Unlike Australia, it appears that urine testing is still the preferred testing method for cannabis use in the workplace in New Zealand. However, in 2007, the Employment Court held that oral swab testing was not sensitive enough to reliably and accurately detect cannabis and it was criticized for returning more false positives or false negative results than urine testing.
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