What are the powers of a testing officer?
Testing officers may direct rail safety workers to: • undergo drug and alcohol testing as part of random, targeted or post-incident testing • undergo a breath test (or sobriety assessment if breath testing device is not available) and breath analysis to test for the concentration of alcohol in breath or in blood • provide a sample of urine to test for the presence of drugs • provide blood and/or urine samples at a hospital if a rail safety worker is injured, or a blood sample (at a hospital) or a urine sample if breath analysis is not available • undergo testing by a third party testing provider, eg. a collecting agency for urine samples. If a collecting agency has been engaged to conduct the drug testing, a testing officer may direct a rail safety worker to be tested by the collecting agency either on site, or at a collection site. In this case, it is not necessary to authorise the collecting agency as a testing officer.
