The TTC has been ordered to stop randomly testing employees for drug use
The transit agency is now considering whether to request a judicial review of the decision
The TTC has been ordered by a labour arbitrator to immediately end a policy allowing employees to be randomly tested for drug and alcohol use.
“The TTC has an interest in public and workplace safety and enhancing that safety is a reasonable goal. However, randomly testing employees for drugs and alcohol without cause is not a reasonable measure to achieve that goal,” arbitrator Laura Trachuk wrote in her decision this week, as reported by CTV News.
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The Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113, which represents around 12,000 public transit workers, has long been opposed to the policy. Following the arbitrator’s decision, its president, Marvin Alfred, reiterated the tax-funded cost of administering random testing. “Apart from the loss of privacy and the lives ruined by this misguided program, the public has suffered. Public dollars that could have been used for real and effective safety initiatives were instead wasted,” he said.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green disagreed, however, and said the transit agency may consider a judicial review. “We maintain that in a safety-critical industry such as transit, random testing is the best way to ensure we are providing the safest service possible for our staff, customers, and the public,” he said. “In that regard, this decision is extremely disappointing.”
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
