WA Employment Law - Employer to Conducting Breath Test in Public?

[Silenthunter]

Does your employer have the right under Employment Law to breath test their employees in a public airport before boarding their charted flight?

Thanks

 

[Tim W]

1. Is it the breath testing itself, or the "in public" aspect that is the issue?
   
   
2. Is the flight counted as "work time" ?
   
   
3. Were you personally denied boarding as the result of a breath test?
   
   
4. A phone call to your union may be helpful.
   

 

[Silenthunter]

Basically our issue is, we've work two weeks, a beer before the plane home isn't out of the question.

the flight is work time.

No I wasn't denied , I don't drink on planes, makes me crook.

And we don't have a union, unions have been pushed out of underground mining in wa.

 

[Tim W]

If the flight is work time, then the airport/airfield and the aircraft are all workplaces,
and the employer's WHS duties apply there, just as they would to any other workplace.

Consider also that something like "passengers must be, and stay, sober"
might be a T&C of the charter.

 

[Rod]

Seems reasonable on some of the smaller planes. An unruly and violent drunk passenger could be a serious safety issue for the pilot. It's not like a bus where you can stop the bus and call the police and have the passenger taken to goal.

A simple safety precaution and nothing personal directed at you. Suspect this is in response to previous incidents where miners have been drunk and caused problems on planes.

 

[Silenthunter]

Actually no, the other crew miss behaved on their shift change and we got randomly breath tested because somehow we were at fault. (on site at the time)

But thanks for clearing things up.