Drug and alcohol tests have been introduced for refuse workers in North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire Council staff who collect waste from homes and businesses will face random and at-cause tests — when bosses suspect the worker may be under the influence.
The new rules have been introduced as part of a county-wide review of the service following the closure of the borough and district authorities and the launch of the unitary council in 2023.
Other changes include the end of ‘task and finish’ working when staff can leave after their duties are done and a move to a four-day working week for all crews.
Speaking at the council’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday, Councillor Richard Foster, executive member for managing our environment, admitted the changes had led to some disruption, particularly in the Harrogate area.
“On the whole, especially moving to the four-day week, I think we’ve done really well. Staff have taken that on board fantastically well and are working hard and working well. That has been a real positive.
“On the negative side, mainly in the Harrogate area, we have had some issues with rounds and we can only really apologise to residents. It’s around route harmonisation and route optimisation. Lessons have been massively learnt through this process.”
The four-day week will be rolled out next in Scarborough.
Karl Battersby, corporate director for the environment, added: “Not only have we harmonised the working week, or will have done when we do Scarborough in September, but we have also removed some working practices so from January we ended the practice of task and finish.
“We also went to standardised start and finish times for all the crews. We also required all crews to start and finish at the depot as well, so we had much better staff engagement with the crews.
“We also changed much of the management arrangements across the county and got much tighter around things such as sickness absence. We also introduced random and at-cause drug and alcohol testing.”
Mr Battersby said the tests did not indicate there was a particular problem within the service.
He added: “At the end of the day, we want our staff to be safe and want the public to be safe.
“It’s very common practice, many authorities do it, and indeed we do it with other parts of the organisation, such as highways.”
