A railway company did not have justification to require two workers to submit to substance testing following a minor incident with railway equipment, an arbitrator from the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration and Dispute Resolution has found.
The two workers were employed with Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPR) since 2011. One was an extra gang foreman and the other was a special group machine operator.’
CPR had an alcohol and drug policy that permitted substance testing for a “significant work related incident, a safety related incident or a near miss or as part of an investigation.” The policy also stated that an employee should not be tested if “the act or omission of the individual(s) could not have been a contributing factor to the incident.”
