PJ Hegarty & Sons UK Ltd is the latest firm to use an Intelligent Fingerprinting solution to promote positive safety culture across UK building sites – potentially including staff sub-contracted to HS2 project.
The UK arm of construction company PJ Hegarty, has selected a fingerprint sweat technology for employee drug screening. Following ‘rapid expansion’ in the first half of 2022, the building & civil engineering contractor will use Intelligent Fingerprinting’s non-invasive testing approach – where a ‘simple and reliable’ sweat sample is used to screen quickly for very recent use of cannabis, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, with on-site results available in ten minutes.
PJ Hegarty will use Intelligent Fingerprinting to reinforce the importance for all employees to be fit for work both physically and mentally. This technology will ‘streamline’ testing and support – helping PJ Hegarty align testing with its ‘positive safety culture’. PJ Hegarty is using fingerprint drug testing across a number of UK sites as well as currently being engaged with Balfour Beatty Vinci Joint Venture on various projects on the northern section of HS2. The PJ Hegarty Group currently has ‘over 450’ employees and sub-contractors working on medium to large construction sites, including waste to energy and pharmaceutical developments.
Narinder Singh Lall, EHS Advisor at PJ Hegarty said: “We needed an in-house drug test, so compared the innovative fingerprint sweat method with more traditional saliva swabs. From PJ Hegarty’s perspective, Intelligent Fingerprinting proved a clear winner thanks to immediate on-site results, and the ability to collect samples without the need for specialist collection areas or medically trained personnel. We also found the Intelligent Fingerprinting approach was highly visual, offering a proactive deterrent to those seeking employment as well as an incentive to our existing workforce to encourage adherence to our drug and alcohol policy.
“Random fingerprint drug testing is a fantastic solution and, not surprisingly, is rapidly becoming best practice in the construction sector”, added Narinder Singh Lall. “We’ve heard of other organisations using it and, by adopting it, PJ Hegarty sends a clear signal – to both prospective employees as well as the rest of the industry – that we’re serious about providing a quality service and leading within the construction industry to adopt new technologies to further strengthen best practices in the areas of health and safety.”
Terry Elvin, Intelligent Fingerprinting Account Manager for PJ Hegarty, added: ”Fingerprint drug testing is fast becoming best practice in the construction sector – tests can be managed in-house by a company’s HR or Health & Safety Manager – whenever required and, costs can be tightly controlled. With a growing number of companies rapidly adopting the test – including Hayfield Homes, Stonbury and MPB Structures – safety officers in the construction industry are realising that Intelligent Fingerprinting helps them deliver their drug testing obligations as simply and effectively as possible. It feels great to be able to offer a solution that not only makes workplaces safer but also makes it much easier for HR teams to deliver on their health and safety obligations.”
Just read the white paper on fingerprint drug testing. It’s an awesome bit of kit that takes away a lot of the headaches from past usage – shorter detection window making it less intrusive into private life – as in what you do in your own time is up to you as long as it does not affect work. Noninvasive, no biohazard waste. Would be interesting to see how tricky it would be to use on a construction site
Feel free to give us a shout Karl, via the website or linkedin.
Thanks for your feedback Karl. Yes, it’s an interesting debate that we’re keen to do more on.
how can I get some info about the system
Feel free to give us a shout Gary, via the website or linkedin.
I’d be interested to know how they test these kits during research, given that many of the substances they test for are illegal.