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 Portugal
On 31st December 1998 the Portuguese population was approximately 10 million inhabitants with 4, 830 million of persons employed in the second trimester of 1999. Although a high prevalence of alcohol consumption in Portugal's workplace is generally admitted, the true dimension of the abuse of illicit drugs remains an undiscovered mystery. Concerning drug testing at workplace nobody knows how many people are tested, how many tested positive, how many companies (and of which type of activity) are testing their employees.
Few studies have investigated this subject. Vitòria [1] in 1994, on a survey on the companies of the Lisbon district with more than 50 workers, estimated 20% doing drug testing. Pinheiro et al [2] registered in 1997, 14% of the largest Portuguese companies (with a workforce over than 1000) performing tests, the majority in an unreliable way.
Effective number of tests executed and its results are extremely difficult to obtain, as the majority of employers do not assume his testing programs. The most representative (and probably sole) indicators existent are those of the Portuguese Army (currently professionalised), the positive results obtained have decreased from 17% in 1986 to 5.8% in 1995 - of which 4.1% of the cases refer to cannabis and 1.4% to opiate [2]. It must be said that the Portuguese Navy is surely the greatest authority on drug abuse control and testing programs in Portugal, working since a decade ago very closed to the US Navy, where his professionals (medical doctors, toxicologists, and many others) were trained.
Legal Aspects
There isn't any law that regulates drug testing in Portugal at this moment. Moreover, consumption of drugs is not forbidden at the workplace from a legal point of view.
Some public discussion concerning this topic started in 1995-96, when some of the investigations listed above were known, and conducted to a meeting with trade unions, the Government, the Portuguese industrial association and the Portuguese Navy (the technical and analytical support), which took place in Lisbon on July 1999.
These institutions and social structures had celebrated a protocol of collaboration in order to create a national program to prevent drug abuse at workplace. As a part of this agreement, the Government had promised specific legislation, and the impression we got is that, conversely to same opinion makers and political previous positions, drug testing will be considered an unquestionable part of this program. It is too early to know the practical results of this protocol.
Summary
Although the absence of a legal prohibition of drug testing, most of the companies are afraid to analyse their workers or applicants, fearing the potential legal consequences. Those who effectively have drug-testing programs do not assume it. A thick cloak of silence hides the real situation. This so called "conspiracy of silence" is so relevant, that it is known, privately, that some public institutions (the few that have GC/MS technology available) are in fact doing, not officially, confirmation tests for some companies.
Anyway, most of the programs existent includes pre-employment testing and, as far as we know, the consent is not always obtained. Worse than that is the way of testing have been performed: only a minority of employers confirm the screening positives tests by GC/MS, and on site tests are often the unique method used for this purpose.
References:
- Vitoria, P.D. (1994). Consumo de alcool e drogas ilegais em empresas do distrito de Lisboa. Fundacao Portuguesa para o Estudo, Prevencao e Tratamento da Toxicodependencia, Cascais.
- Pinheiro, J.; Pinheiro R.; Marques, E.P.; Vieira, D.N. (1997). O consumo de substãncias nas maiores empresas portuguesas. 4° Forum de Medicina do Trabalho, Lisboa.
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