• Have you completed a drug and alcohol impact assessment?
• Do you have a drug and alcohol policy in place that meets current best practice as defined in the Employment Practices Code?
• Have you determined what drugs you are going to test for?
• Have you included the blood alcohol level at which they may be disciplined?
• Have you communicated your drug and alcohol policy to all your employees?
• Have you incorporated your drug and alcohol policy into your Employee Handbook?
• Have you considered what training, information and advice you will provide to your workforce?
• What assistance will you provide to those employees that ask for help in dealing with a drug or alcohol related problem?

• The Health and Safety at Work Act places legal duties on us all to protect the Health, Safety & Welfare of ourselves, our colleagues and those who may be affected by what we do at work, which includes the risks that that we may create by the improper use of drugs, or alcohol in the workplace.
• Your workplace drugs and alcohol policy will reflect the fact that certain drugs are illegal. The possession, buying and selling of these illegal drugs is a criminal offence, as is the abuse, or supply of certain prescribed drugs.

• Oral fluid/saliva – Saliva drug testing is an approved alternative to urine and usually considered more acceptable by employees. As these tests are carried out in the presence of the collector, there are fewer procedures to follow to ensure integrity of the test results.
• Although many drugs remain detectable in saliva for up to 2 – 3 days, the detection window for Cannabis is only 8 – 12 hours, being indicative of recent use if detected.
• Urine – Urine testing is one of the most common forms of drug test. The test is considered as non-invasive although it requires a high level of preparation, prior to the donor providing a sample of urine, to ensure the integrity of the sample e.g. isolating toilets, turning off water supplies, locking windows etc Depending on the drug(s) being tested for, the detection window in urine can be, in most circumstances between 3 – 5 days following last use.
• Hair – Hair testing is not usually undertaken in the workplace, unless the nature of the employee’s role is high risk to the employer and lifestyle testing is the only way to determine whether or not there has been drug use.
• Hair tests can normally detect drug use up to 12 months which is why it is normally used for court or other legal proceedings to determine abstinence.

Our fully trained collectors can carry out testing under a number of circumstances:

• Pre-employment
• Random
• For cause, for example, after an accident or incident, or as part of an aftercare
• As part of a rehabilitation back to work programme

• At Ultra Services Group we believe in providing the most cost-effective, flexible solutions and as such we have developed a comprehensive training course, which allows us to train your in-house drug and alcohol collection team to the required standards for collecting Point of Care saliva and urine, undertaking breath alcohol testing and collecting samples under full chain-of-custody rules.

The course will cover:

• An explanation of the entire testing process
• A hands-on practical where all the attendees use the kits
• Interpretation of the results
• Completing the documentation
• How to deal with a refusal
• How to deal with a non-negative
• Carry out a full chain-of-custody collection
• Undertaking a breath sample collection using an evidential breathalyser
• Taking breath samples for alcohol testing