Suncor Drug Tests Appeal To Annul Injunction Denied

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Suncor Energy was declined its appeal to lift a temporary injunction which has prohibited the company to commence its random drug and alcohol testing on its employees. The appeal was denied by The Alberta Court of Appeal in a split decision on Wednesday after hearing arguments from the oilsands giant.

The ruling elaborated that no testing will currently take place until the issue is resolved by the labour arbitration board. Next hearing is dated to begin from Dec. 10. Previously, Suncor had declared back in June that it is going to begin random testing on its employees from Oct. 15, 2012. This action was countered on Oct. 12 by an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justicem, Eric Macklin, who issued a temporary injunction requested by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union over concerns about worker privacy.

Suncor now appealed the higher court for invalidating the injunction. Lawyers of the company lead the case on the basis reference with previous 100 incidents of drug and alcohol use on the Suncor worksite in the past two years. The lawyers asserted that the tests shall be allowed in the interest of safety. It was also pointed out that three deaths have resulted from employee drug and alcohol use since 2000.

On the other hand, the lawyer for the union, CEP Ritu Khullar, claimed that “the union believes that the random testing is asking people who are otherwise innocent, who have never given the employer any reason to believe that they have come to work impaired, to be subject to these tests, is unreasonable.”