A mine worker who tested positive to methylamphetamine during a routine mine site drug test has told the Fair Work Commission that she believes her drink was spiked during a hotel drinking binge three days before she was tested.
The worker made the claim at an unfair dismissal hearing brought against her employer, Downer EDI Mining late last year.
At the time of her dismissal the woman was working as an Operator at the Boggabri open cut coal mine in NSW.
The woman, who was 30 at the time of the incident, told that Fair Work Commission that she had not taken the drug recreationaly and that her only explanation was that her drink had been tampered with during a heavy drinking session.
The woman claimed that on the night and morning of the previous weekend she had been drinking with two men that she did not know and was unable to subsequently identify. The applicant could not recall the detail of events of the evening and early morning after she had engaged with the two unknown men. The woman said she believed that she may have had her drink “spiked” by one or both of these unknown men and that was when she unwittingly had methylamphetamine introduced into her body.
A representative for Downer EDI Mining told the Commission that the woman tested at four times the accepted limit for methylamphetamine and that it was almost impossible for such a high level of drug to still be in the woman’s system three days after the alleged drink spiking took place.
The Downer representative also questioned why the woman had not immediately gone to the police if she believed her drink had been spiked.
On Wednesday the Fair Work Commission found that the woman’s dismissal was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable. Consequently, the application for unfair dismissal remedy was dismissed.
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