More people get stuck in drug tests – an industry stands out

More employees get stuck in drug tests at the country’s workplaces. The results from the construction industry stand out.

– It poses a risk to the individual, but also for workmates and for the public, says company doctor Fredrik Sparring.

Overall, the occupational health company Avonova together with the Karolinska University Laboratory has studied 24,000 drug tests in workplaces from 2023 – and concluded that the proportion of positive test answers has increased significantly in recent years.

Safety in focus

In random drug testing, the highest proportion of positive results – 3.6 percent – was found in the construction sector. The average for all industries surveyed was 1.9 percent positive test answers.

– The construction industry stands out in a negative way, says Fredrik Sparring company doctors and specialist in addiction issues at Avonova.

– In construction, it may be that there is no sufficient control over the labor force. It is common with sub -consultants. Employers and unions must take greater responsibility for a drug -free work environment, security must be more important than personal integrity, he continues.

Precisely security can suffer when individual workers are drug -affected.

– In the construction industry, everything is at its forefront. There are high heights, heavy machines and tools. It poses a risk to the individual but also for workmates and to the public, says Sparring.

More support

What, then, can companies do to detect drug abuse in the workplace and partly help individual employees who want to get out of abuse? Fredrik Sparring has several suggestions.

– Drug tests are obviously a tool. But you also need to have a drug and alcohol policy and define what the consequences will be if they are broken. The knowledge that there may be drug tests has a preventive effect, we have seen.

Sparring also thinks that the proactive work is important where managers, for example, should be trained in detecting abuse or problems, and being able to offer support and rehabilitation.

Several judgments from the Labor Court state that employers have an obligation to support rehabilitation for employees with alcohol problems. But there are no similar obligations for employees with drug abuse, says Fredrik Sparring.

– We think you have to modernize the view of this. Some employers take great responsibility for employees with drug problems, others do not. It looks very different.

Fact -positive drug tests in different industries

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