EL-028 Reviewed 19/07/2021
Element 28 – Drug and Alcohol Management
PM-004-00: Drug and Alcohol Management
OTHR has prepared a Drug and Alcohol Management Procedure, that describes the processes that it will follow to minimise the risk occurring from rail safety worker use of drugs and/or alcohol.
OTHR’s procedure describes the processes to be followed to manage drug and alcohol use for rail safety workers. Its procedure meets a number of prescribed criteria:
- Has have an overarching safety policy that includes their ‘zero tolerance’ approach to drugs and alcohol use;
- The policy must be available to all rail safety workers so that there is a clear understanding of it;
- The Procedure must be developed as a result of risk assessment. OTHR has considered the:
- time of day and days of operation – for example: very weekend or once a month;
- makeup of the workforce– is it primarily retired or people who are employed;
- the general health and age of the workforce
- the type of work is carried out by rail safety workers.
- As part of the initial assessment, OTHR has considered the levels of safety risk for each rail safety worker role so that they can determine which roles require higher levels of testing.
- OTHR has determined the number of rail safety workers to be tested annually;
- OTHR will require drug and alcohol testing to be undertaken by using external contractors;
- Sign on sheets include a statement to confirm that rail safety workers are free from drugs and/or alcohol;
- Rail safety workers who use prescription medication should report what they are taking and what affect they may have on their ability to do rail safety work;
- Rail safety workers who use prescription medication should also understand the impacts of self-medicating outside of prescribed dosages.
ONRSR Fact Sheet Drug and Alcohol: Scalability of Drug and Alcohol Management Programs for Tourist & Heritage Operators
OTHR has a responsibility under the Rail Safety National law to ensure that its rail safety workers do not carry out work in relation to its railway operations while impaired by a drug or alcohol.
The SMS includes a drug and alcohol mangement program to manage risks related to the use of drugs or alcohol and includes a Drug and Alcohol policy and procedures for the provision of information and education to the rail safety workers.
Resources:
OTHR Associated Documents:
PM-004-00 Drugs and Alcohol Management 01072021
PM-004-01 Drugs and Alcohol Management Procedure 01072021
PM-004-03 Drug and Alcohol Sign-On-Sheet
POL-004-Drug-Alcohol-Policy-20190702
SOP-015-D-A-ONRSR-Reporting-20190702
Last updated: July 23, 2021 at 9:50 am