

- Rule 1: The policy must be not only necessary to ensure safety but carried out in the least privacy-intrusive way possible.
- Rule 2: The policy must accommodate employees’ disabilities (remember that drug/alcohol dependency and addiction are “disabilities” under human rights laws) to the point of undue hardship.
- Current drug/alcohol use;
- Current drug/alcohol dependency; and
- Drug/alcohol dependency in the past 6 years.
- The IME (and employee’s removal from the workplace) is triggered automatically after an employee discloses without consideration of the employee’s individual circumstances or whether he/she has been involved in any workplace safety incidents;
- The IME is performed by a specialist selected by the employer, which flies in the face of court rulings that addiction specialists be brought in only after attempts to gather the information from the employee’s primary care doctor and that the employee should have a say in which specialist does the exam.
- Good News: The required treatment program (Sec. 4(b)) follows medical protocols and best practices; Bad News: The concept of prescribing any single program to be followed in all cases violates the rule that accommodations be tailored to the individual circumstances and needs of the particular employee.
- Requiring employees to undergo a second IME after successfully completing their rehab and treatment programs is overkill (Sec. 4(c)).
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