North Lanarkshire Council employees can be tested for alcohol or drug abuse if their managers suspect a problem.

Last week, the council’s finance and resources committee voted to adopt a new policy of breath and urine testing after the Labour administration and SNP group came to an agreement.

The initial report brought to the committee called for it to note the outcomes from additional consultation with bodies such as trade unions.

The SNP group put forward two additional recommendations – to review the policy annually and to promote awareness of the support available to staff with addiction problems.

Labour’s committtee convener Bob Burrows accepted these additional recommendations and they were added to those already contained in the report.

SNP spokesman, and Wishaw councillor, Jim Hume said: “The SNP Group is pleased that our suggestions were adopted. The council has rejected random testing of employees for alcohol and drugs in favour of a ‘with cause’ approach to testing.

“The SNP Group wanted a clause to ensure that the ‘with cause’ approach is applied with fairness and transparency to the council workforce and reported back to elected councillors.”