A multinational engineering firm that was forcing workers on a Queensland gas project to submit blood tests in order to secure employment, has backed down following a legal push by the Electrical Trades Union.
Last fortnight, the union revealed that SNC-Lavalin, a new contract-holder for the project, was requiring prospective employees to submit to blood tests in order to retain their work on Shell’s Queensland Gas Corporation project at Chinchilla.
Under legal waivers the workers were asked to sign, there was no legal requirement to inform the workers of the outcome of the tests and the contractor had the legal right to send workers’ data, medical records and blood samples overseas to multi-national companies.