Trade Union JHL: legislation on alcohol testing needs to be brought up to date, an employee cannot be required to take a PEth test

Many workplaces violate employees’ personal integrity and privacy by requiring them to undergo a PEth test that detects consumption of alcohol over a longer period of time and threatening them with dismissal if they refuse. Trade Union JHL demands an end to this trend.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman issued in August a decision stating that under the current legislation employees cannot be required to undergo a PEth test that detects consumption of alcohol over a longer period of time. So far, only the Aviation Act and the Seafarers’ Employment Contracts Act include provisions on spot check breathalyser tests, and even these provisions only apply to employees working in specific duties in these sectors. Other sectors do not have statutory provisions that give an employer the right to demand alcohol tests from employees.

Nevertheless, PEth testing has increased rapidly in the recent years. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK published in early 2026 the results of a survey conducted among union representatives. According to the survey, testing has been done in almost one in five workplaces. Sometimes employees may have been tested so that they did not know about the test.

Using PEth tests is problematic because the result can directly show consumption of alcohol during the employee’s personal time. Because a PEth test can indicate consumption of alcohol that happened even weeks earlier, it is clear that such testing affects the employee’s actions during their leisure time. This applies especially to those situations where the employer has told that the test results will affect the employee’s employment and may lead to dismissal.

“An employer needs to have the means to ensure that for example transport sector employees do not work under the influence of alcohol. Even so, I object to employers measuring traces of employees’ alcohol consumption that happened even weeks earlier”, says the President of Trade Union JHL Håkan Ekström.

“As the Deputy-Ombudsman stated, consumption of alcohol is legal and culturally accepted in Finland. The more a test done in work context interferes with an employee’s conduct during their personal time, the weightier the reasons for such testing must be”, Ekström reminds.

Many JHL members work in transport or safety-related occupations. Even in the aviation sector all employees cannot be required to participate in testing that measures alcohol consumption. Simply working at an airport is not a sufficient reason.

“What is decisive is the employee’s actual work and how it affects flight safety”, JHL’s Director of Interest Representation Kristian Karrasch sums up.

The current legislation permits testing of alcohol consumption only as part of a medical check-up, and the person attending the check-up must be clearly informed of what examinations are done to them. Even then the test requires an explicit consent from the employee. The testing must furthermore always be based on a substance abuse programme that has been developed through workplace cooperation.

A PEth test does not indicate the employee’s state of intoxication at the time of testing. Instead, it detects consumption of alcohol over a longer period of time. A single blood test can never constitute grounds for lawfully terminating an employee’s employment contract, and refusing a PEth or breathalyser test cannot alone be a proper reason required by the Employment Contracts Act for terminating an employment contract.

Trade Union JHL demands employers to make sure that they stop applying unlawful PEth testing policies, which include both forcing employees to undergo tests and testing them in secret. JHL furthermore demands that workplaces develop a substance abuse programme in cooperation with personnel representatives if they want to offer PEth testing as an option in connection to health check-ups.

“New methods of testing must not automatically give the employer more powers to monitor what the employees do during their personal time. We must ensure through legislation that employees’ privacy and the terms of their employment relationship are not endangered for testing”, says the President of JHL Håkan Ekström.

More information:

Håkan Ekström, President of JHL, 040 828 2865

Kristian Karrasch, JHL’s Director of Interest Representation, 040 728 9046

Merja Hyvärinen, Working Life Specialist at JHL, 050 472 9534