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Workplace Testing Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:44 pm
Who saw the article in the Mountain Scene about poor Dougie the Elderly Steamboat pianist who was fired for refusing his drug test?
Well...I work for that company...
I raised the topic with my superior recently, and was told in no uncertain terms that if I have any reservations about it, I should refuse to sign a new contract when it comes up for renewal.
But really...would I have a leg to stand on? I certainly wouldnt have a job!
I knew about the pre-emplyment testing and tested negative, but I have now found out all our names go into a "hat" each week for each region and are "randomly selected".
Apparently company policy is to rehabilitae users, rsather than fire them, but in all honesty it's making me really uneasy(paranoid.ha ha)
Does anyone have any similar situations or opinions on what I should do short of quitting? Other than the testing the perks, pay and workplace environment are pretty good!
EVERY time the Earnslaw’s familiar horn sounds, pensioner Doug Harrap’s heart sinks. After seven years as a pianist on the vintage lake steamer, the 67-year-old Queenstown grandfather of six was “devastated” when he was fired from the job he loved. He’d refused to take a random drug test – his second in just 14 months, he says.
Harrap also claims soon after the summary sacking, in October last year, he was then invited by Earnslaw bosses to apply for another post as a piano player. But just four days before last Christmas, he says he was “gutted” when told he had “been unsuccessful on this occasion”. Harrap’s misery has been compounded by new adverts in the local press seeking a pianist for the boat. This has prompted his daughter Lynda to write to Earnslaw operator Real Journeys expressing concerns about the treatment of her dad.
The firm’s Queenstown boss Tracey Maclaren was in no mood to elaborate when contacted by Mountain Scene. “Mr Harrap’s employment was terminated in October last year and we accept that,” she says. “I have a letter from his daughter Lynda Harrap, but refute most of the claims that have been made. But we don’t comment on employment or privacy-related issues.”
Harrap admits he regrets refusing to take the random test that led to his dismissal. But he says he’d already passed a mandatory screening just over a year earlier. “I had no problem with taking the first test. The company had introduced them as part of new health and safety measures,” he says. “But when I was picked at random for another, I objected as I believed there were at least nine other staff on duty that day including two captains, an engineer and a stoker, and most of whom had never been tested at all.
“Compared to those people, what kind of danger to the ship and passengers did I pose, sitting at the piano singing songs? And at my age, did they think I was on party pills or something?” Harrap’s GP, Dr Elinor Slater, even wrote to Real Journeys, explaining her patient has “never been, nor never will be, a misuser of substances”. But Harrap claims despite that, and a subsequent plea from himself to be reinstated, he got no joy.
He also claims that last November he was asked to a meeting with Maclaren and former boss Andrew Husheer, and invited to apply for a new piano-playing job on the boat. “Tracey gave me an application form and told me to fill it in,” he says. “I later had an interview with Andrew that was farcical considering he had been my boss for five years.
“He was asking me silly questions like ‘if you were at the piano and only three people were singing along, how would you handle it?’ I mean, I had been one of the most experienced entertainers on the ship and have a scrapbook full of tributes from passengers from all over the world.” Harrap’s hopes hit the rocks when he says he got a short phone call from Husheer on December 21 telling him he wasn’t required. “It was like a kick in the stomach. I haven’t heard anything from them since.”
Maclaren again: “With respect to Doug and his circumstances, we are not at liberty to discuss or share any employment or privacy-related issue.”
Harrap’s daughter Lynda is considering taking the matter further. ”My dad is on his own and lived for that job. I want some answers.” she says.
Meanwhile, all Harrap is left with is the daily torture of hearing the noise of the ship’s hooter drifting across Queenstown Bay. “It’s a sound I used to love,” he says. “But now I think that horn is just mocking me.”
Sounds like Doug got a short shift with the drug test just a convenient excuse,
He hit a few too many bum notes perhaps or one of the bosses had a NIECE ?????? and she was on again off again.. but had yet to learn to play an piano..
There has got to be more to it than just the drug testing..
Imaging if a Christchurch Hospital medical research Dept had one of these new fangled advanced spectro thingamajigs , currently only available for research , but it could measure any drugs and accurate levels over the prior 3 months with just one human hair..
Then enforce work place drug testing on our sitting politicians.. Let them lead by example.. if they are so keen to show transparency , lets see how many of them would refuse to supply a hair ..
Maybe its a challenge we should put to them.. I can think of a number of willing providers of funds to meet the cost of the testing..
Or maybe a few well placed hair dressers , make up artists ????
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