Mary Malmros wrote:
MoonMan wrote:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

On 2004-12-21, MoonMan penned:

What invasion of privacy?

If I want to race at an national (or for that matter International)
level I have to agree to drug testing. No one is forcing me to do
this it is my choice!

Yes, and if I want to get a job lately, I have to pee in a cup and
subject myself to all sorts of questions. If I don't want to do
that, I can just ... um ... not get a job.

Way to miss the point.


What any job? I think that would be illegal here and stupidly
expensive and unreliable at that.

Where's "here"? It's sure 'nuff legal in these United States, and
widely practiced in corporate America. In fact, here's a good one for
you -- Nortel Networks, a company based in Canada, started mandating
drug testing for all new employees AND all contractors in 1999 -- that
is, for its US employees and contractors. Not the Canadians. Know
why? It's illegal there. That's one example; there are plenty of
others. Lucent started doing the same thing in around the same
timeframe, for example.

England

There where news stories about companies wanting to test employees, but they
where mainly based on how unreliable the tests where, even the companies
that supply them admit they are only indicative, but the results found by
the reporters whern't even that good.



Stupidly expensive? Yes indeed. But they still do it. Some
numbskull at Company A becomes convinced that "drug testing" is a
good idea. Can't articulate what they should test for. Can't state
what it is that _all_ the company's employees do on the job that
makes this necessary or even desirable -- some of them are stuffing
envelopes, some of them are writing software, some of them are
answering phones, some of them are driving forklifts, but they all
gotta prove that they're drug-free! Can't say what they'll do if
someone tests positive. Can't describe how confidentiality will be
maintained. But they're gonna require "drug testing". And, just
like the loyalty oaths in Catch-22, it escalates. To be _really_
drug-free, Company A then demands that all of their vendors also be
drug-free. So Companies B, C and D need to do the same. And on
and on and on.

sound like religious conviction to me or just arse covering.


There are testing companies making a great deal of money out of this.
Chances of making it go away at this point are slim to none.

There are News stories about changing the law to allow headteachers
to require drug tests at schools though.

Mind you what is an interview if it's not subjecting yourself to all
sorts of questions?

Any HR rep will tell you that there are many questions you aren't
allowed to ask in an interview.

I still don't see the invasion of privacy though.

Then you won't mind if I go to your house and go through your sock
drawer looking for drugs, right?

Well I would suggest going out for a beer would be more fun

Mind you the only people legally allowed to search my sock drawer without my
permission would be the police ( well and customs and excise here in the
UK ) and they would need justification.


--
Chris *:-)

Downhill Good, Uphill BAD!

www.suffolkvikings.org.uk