On 12 May Angela Putney  wrote:

  "I completely understand the points you are making,
>Shannon, and for certain jobs I can see the need (perhaps police,
firefighter, EMT
>worker, etc.) but working in a museum is not one of them."

I agree up to a point. Most museum jobs would not need to be drug tested,
in fact ideally, no job anywhere should need to be drug tested, because
ideally we are all responsible people who lay off the mind altering
substances so we can do our jobs to the very best of our ability.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, there are some museums jobs in some
museums that do require people to have a clear, unpolluted mind. I work
with a group of conservators, technicians and registrars called the "Large
and Difficult Team". This term does not necessarily refer to our size or
attitude, but to the nature of our work. We dismantle, move
conserve/restore and reassemble large technology objects (eg tanks
artillery, aircraft). We deal with valuable, unwieldly, heavy, and often
fragile parts of the collection, using equipment that is potentially lethal
if used incorrectly. It requires everyone on the team to be well trained,
alert and co-operative. To date we haven't had any accidents, nor to my
knowledge has any of the team turned up in an intoxicated state to
undertake a task. We are not drug tested at present, nor is this likely to
be a requirement in the foreseeable future. Personally, I don't like the
idea of working with someone who is intoxicated. My safety, and sometimes
my very life, is often in the hands of my colleagues. I need to know that I
can rely on them, and vice versa.

But here's a "what if?" scenario for museum-lers to consider. In Australia
we have Occupational Health and Safety legislation etc, where the term
"Duty of Care" often arises. This basically means that both the employer
and the employee are obliged to provide and maintain a safe working
environment. If an intoxicated employee directly causes a workplace
accident in which another person, be they employee or member of the public,
is seriously injured or killed, then who is responsible? Is the employer
partially responsible for allowing a workplace to become unsafe by
permitting the intoxicated person to be there? If so, then how does the
employer go about preventing intoxicated employees from accessing the
workplace?

Workplace drug testing is not a big issue yet in Australia. Most of it has
to do with performance enhancing drugs used by athletes. I'm not sure, but
I think there is random alcohol testing for the emergency services and
public transport operators. As we tend to follow American trends, I suppose
it will only be a matter of time before workplace drug testing does become
a big issue here.

George Bailey
Objects Conservator
Australian War Memorial
Treloar Centre for Conservation
4 Callan St, Mitchell, A.C.T. 2911
Australia
Phone: +61 2 6243 4440
fax:   +61 2 6241 7998
email: [log in to unmask]

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