Construction group Masterson Holdings is introducing fingerprint drug testing for all its employees.
The random checks will be carried out on everyone from directors to labourers and positive tests come through in just ten minutes after analysing tiny traces of fingerprint sweat.
The tests will cover employees at group companies GetJar, Atlantic Contracts and Glencoe Plant Services.
Masterson Holdings selected the fingerprint method ahead of urine and saliva tests because Intelligent Fingerprinting’s portable solution enables on-site drug tests at its construction sites.
Andrew Chowings, Group SHEQ Director of GetJar said: “As a contractor, we have a drug usage Health and Safety Policy for our employees’ on-site safety, and adopting the Intelligent Fingerprinting solution allows us to carry out tests quickly, easily and more unobtrusively when compared to urine tests for example.
“However, as a reputable family business, we wanted to go a step further. Instead of relying on external parties to fulfil our drug testing, we can now bring the function in-house, proactively introducing drug testing as part of our employee wellbeing initiatives.
“There are, of course, urine and saliva drug tests on the market but the fingerprint method fitted the bill for us as we are able to test our employees ourselves – at a random time to suit us, with rapid on-site results.
“It is also extremely quick and ‘clean’ with no unhygienic bodily fluids used as part of the process.
“As part of a broader employee wellbeing initiative, we have also introduced random drug testing for all our employees, from directors to labourers.
“The programme has been in play for a few months now and the response from our employees has been extremely positive – we’ve even had volunteers as they are intrigued by the innovative fingerprint-based testing technology.
“We’ve now adopted Intelligent Fingerprinting into our health and safety and wellbeing policies, and randomly test a part of the business every 12 weeks.”
Intelligent Fingerprinting’s Dr Paul Yates added: “The fact that fingerprint drug tests do not require specialised testing facilities or clinical waste disposal also means that companies such as Masterson Holdings can benefit from a testing approach that is much easier to use than traditional methods that can be invasive, time-consuming and undignified.”