An Ontario employer breached a worker’s privacy by ordering him to undergo post-incident drug and alcohol testing – even though it was a significant event that could justify testing, an arbitrator has ruled.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) manages nuclear operations across Canada. The worker was a radiation surveyor trainee at Chalk River, Ont., where CNL was decommissioning a nuclear reactor. He joined CNL in August 2021.
The worker’s duties included performing a daily survey that detects and measures nuclear contamination in areas where nuclear waste was stored in holes bored into the ground and encased in concrete. The holes were arranged in rectangular groups called tile arrays with hazard signs intermittently located on the boundaries.