Drug and Alcohol Policies for Traffic Control Companies

A drug and alcohol policy for traffic control sets out the standard, how it is checked and how people are supported. Controllers make split-second decisions beside live traffic, so the standard is usually zero alcohol and no impairment from drugs or medication. A fair policy is consulted on, tests properly, protects privacy and gives people a way to ask for help.

This guide is for owners, operations managers and safety staff writing or reviewing a policy. It is general information, not legal advice. Drug and alcohol testing touches employment law, WHS law, privacy and sometimes enterprise agreements, so get advice before you introduce or change testing, and check the current position with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Why traffic control needs a clear policy

Alcohol and drugs affect reaction time, judgement, vision and mood. For a traffic controller, those are the tools of the job. Impairment also matters beyond the shift: most controllers drive to site, many drive company utes, and some operate truck-mounted attenuators.

The Austroads guide for traffic controllers (AGTTM Part 7) sets a clear expectation. Controllers should:

• maintain a zero blood alcohol concentration while performing traffic control duties
• not perform duties while adversely affected by illegal drugs
• not perform duties while adversely affected by other medication that causes impairment

It also notes that some companies test controllers for drugs and alcohol. In practice, many principal contractors and road authority projects require a documented drug and alcohol policy, and sometimes testing, as part of prequalification and site rules. Our traffic control prequalification guide covers the wider documentation clients ask for.

Under WHS laws, impairment is a risk the business must manage like fatigue or heat. A policy is one control. Fit-for-work questions at the pre-start, supervision and a culture where people can speak up are others.

What a good policy includes

A policy should be short enough that every controller can understand it. The table below covers the usual elements.

Consultation is not optional

WHS laws require employers to consult workers on decisions about health and safety, and enterprise agreements or awards may have their own consultation terms. Fair Work Commission decisions on testing policies have looked at how policies were introduced, not just what they said. Explain the reasons, listen to concerns, and record the process.

Shared sites, labour hire and subcontractors

Traffic control crews rarely work on a site that belongs only to their employer. A principal contractor may run its own testing program, and your controllers may be tested under its rules as well as yours. Agree in advance how that works: who can test your workers, who receives the results, and which policy applies if they conflict. Labour hire controllers and subcontracted crews should be covered by a policy too, whether yours, their agency's or both, with the arrangement written into the contract. New companies often leave this until a client asks for it; our guide to starting a traffic control company covers the policies worth having from day one.

Testing: types, methods and standards

Types of testing

• Pre-employment. Part of onboarding, with the candidate's consent.
• Random. Selected without notice, using a genuinely random method.
• For cause. Where a supervisor reasonably suspects impairment, based on observed behaviour.
• Post-incident. After a crash, near miss or injury, as defined in the policy.
• Return to work. Before someone returns after a confirmed positive or a treatment program.

Oral fluid or urine

Fair Work Commission decisions have generally accepted that employers can choose oral fluid, urine or a mix, where the choice is justified by the safety risks and the policy is reasonable. It is widely accepted that no test directly measures impairment, which is why observed behaviour and fitness for work still matter.

Testing should follow the relevant Australian Standards: AS/NZS 4760 for oral fluid and AS/NZS 4308 for urine. Both set procedures for collection, screening and laboratory confirmation. Check the current editions with Standards Australia and ask your testing provider which edition they work to.

After a non-negative screen

Decide this before the first test, and apply it the same way every time:

1. Stand the worker down from safety-critical duties straight away, discreetly.
2. Get them home safely. They should not drive. Arrange transport.
3. Send the sample for confirmation under the standard's procedure.
4. Tell them what happens next, including whether the stand-down is paid under your policy and when they will hear.
5. Wait for the confirmed result before any disciplinary decision.
6. Follow the policy for a confirmed positive, considering the circumstances and any explanation, and get advice before taking action.

Treat people with dignity throughout. A worker stood down in front of the whole crew, or left on the roadside without a lift, is a failure of the process regardless of the result.

Medicines, medicinal cannabis and driving

Many legitimate medicines can affect alertness, including some pain relief, antihistamines, sleep aids and anxiety medicines. A good policy:

• asks workers to check with their doctor or pharmacist whether a medicine affects work or driving
• asks them to tell a nominated person if it might, without having to name their condition
• uses that information to plan safe duties, not to punish

Medicinal cannabis needs a clear position. It can be lawfully prescribed, but it may still cause impairment and can be detected by testing. Drug-driving laws differ between states and in many cases do not make an exception for prescribed cannabis, so workers who drive need to check their state's rules. Address it openly in the policy so a worker with a prescription knows what to do before a test, not after.

Support, self-disclosure and return to work

A policy that only punishes encourages hiding. A policy that offers help gets problems out in the open before someone is hurt.

• Self-disclosure. Let workers ask for help before a test or incident, with access to support and a pathway back to work. Define clearly how this works and its limits.
• Employee assistance program. Confidential counselling for the worker and often their family.
• Treatment and leave. Explain how leave entitlements and time off for treatment work.
• Return to work. A written plan, often including return-to-work testing for a period, agreed with the worker.
• Respect. Supervisors should talk about the policy without moralising. People with drug or alcohol problems are more likely to seek help from a workplace that treats it as a health issue.

Privacy and records

Drug and alcohol test results are health information and very sensitive. Whether the Privacy Act applies to your business depends on factors such as turnover and how the information is held, and some exemptions for employee records are narrow. Regardless of the legal position, good practice is to:

• limit access to results to the people who need them
• store results separately from general personnel files, securely
• tell workers how their information is collected, used and kept
• take care when sharing results with clients or labour hire agencies, and only as the policy and the law allow

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner explains how the Privacy Act applies to businesses.

Common policy mistakes

• copying a mining or corporate policy that does not fit casual, multi-site traffic control crews
• leaving out labour hire workers and subcontractors who work on your sites
• testing without laboratory confirmation and acting on screens alone
• no clear process for medicines, so honest workers get caught out
• results shared by text message or left in the ute
• a self-disclosure clause nobody knows about
• applying the policy harder to some workers than others

Next steps

Read your current policy against the table above, then talk it through with your crews before your next client audit. Make the fit-for-work question part of every pre-start, as covered in our traffic control pre-start checklist, and include impairment as a hazard in your SWMS for traffic control. The TrafWise platform puts pre-starts and SWMS sign-off in the crew app, which helps keep those daily checks consistent across every crew.