February

Although alcohol and substance testing forms part of the health and safety policies and procedures in many industries, there are still a great number of organizations that do not employ the same cautionary practice, potentially resulting in significant loss to a business.

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act General Safety Regulation 2A states that every employer is obligated to stop persons from entering or remaining at work if they appear to be under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. In some industries, organizations are subjected to annual and spot audits on their health and safety practices.

As a rule, testing should form a regular part of every business' health and safety policy, yet many organizations are fearful of implementing alcohol and drug testing because they believe it 's difficult and costly, in addition to concerns over liability and legal ramifications. However, many reputable providers of drug and alcohol testing equipment offer services to assist organizations with the process.

Even if they do not sponsor non-citizen workers, Australian businesses have obligations under the Migration Act 1958 that includes penalties for any person who allows a non-citizen to work, or who refers a non-citizen to work in circumstances where that non-citizen does not have appropriate work rights.

The penalties begin with an administrative warning and include financial as well as criminal penalties. Every employer in Australia must take reasonable steps to ensure that every person working for them has appropriate work rights.

It also means recruitment and labour hire companies must ensure that any person they put forward to work has appropriate work rights and understands all limitations to those work rights.

The Northern Territory Supreme Court recently sentenced a 32-year-old woman to four years in jail after she falsely claimed to be a registered nurse and worked at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH).

leading not guilty to 10 offences, Nicholas Crawford entered himself as a high-level agency nurse on an Australia-wide database and worked several shifts at RDH.