EMPLOYEE DRUG TESTING LAW
Employee Drug Testing Laws
Employee drug testing law affects just about everyone who works for someone else.
I know because I’m an employee too. Hello I’m Yancey and I make it my business to learn my employee rights. Employee drug tests are now and every day occurrence. According to the Wall Street Journal, 90 percent of the top 200 businesses have a drug testing program.
Employee Law in Drug Testing
What’s amazing is how fast employee drug testing has been accepted by society in such a short period of time. Several decades ago asking someone to take a pre employment drug test as a condition of employment would’ve been viewed as an invasion of employee privacy and a abuse of
employee workplace rights.
Drug testing in employment happens more frequently now because employers want to protect themselves from hiring and maintaining workers with alcohol and other drug issues. States like California have laws that force a balance between employers drug testing programs and
employee workplace privacy.
As an employee I have no problem with my employer carefully screening who gets hired. Why? Because I may have to work with them! One of the main reasons for violence on the job is due to workplace drug abuse. Organizations such as the (ACLU) American Civil Liberties Union say that employment drug tests are what amounts to a
”body search”.
employee drug testing law
Many believe that employment drug testing disregards the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution which protects citizens from
unreasonable searches and seizures. Drug testing of your employees, employers, is viewed as also violating the dignity of the Fourth Amendment against unwelcome government intrusion.
The majority of employees drug testing involve getting a urine sample from the individual being tested. Unfortunately this method of employee drug test is routinely defeated by job seekers who cheat or defeat the test by substituting a positive sample with a “clean” or negative urine specimen.
There are also other ways to adulterate (make something impure) and reduce the effectiveness of urine drug testing. A lot of companies will
use a witness to observe the employee or job seeker while he/she urinates into a cup! This is one of the reasons drug employment tests are objected to. The ACLU states, “ Urine tests are body searches, and they are an unprecedented invasion of privacy.”
The presence of a witness to guard against a urine sample being tampered with has been called
“an experience which even if courteously supervised can be humiliating and degrading”, in the words of one judge. A federal judge noted that “Drug testing is a form of surveillance, albeit a technological one.”
employee drug testing law
- Definition of a search
- government intrusion into an area where the person has a reasonable and justifiable expectation of privacy
- Definition of a seizure
- government exercising control over a person or thing
Many individuals and organizations like the ACLU argue that the government, businesses and organizations should not invade the privacy of and take control of a person’s personal body fluids (urine). Those who support a drug employee test insist that certain employees who are responsible for the lives of others should be held to a higher standard.
Industries such as airlines, trucking, public transportation and others are justifiably concerned about safety. Employers have a duty to ensure their workers aren’t asleep, drunk, high or otherwise impaired. But the anti-drug testing forces maintain that drug testing isn’t a measuring stick for impairment.
They state that urine testing doesn’t determine job performance. If an individual tests are confirmed as positive it doesn’t mean she is drunk, high or unable to function in the job. It simply shows she may have used drugs in the past.
employee drug testing law
Many employers believe they have a right to do
pre employment drug testing and present employee drug testing because of the cost in lost productivity. Research shows they have trouble proving the millions in estimates they give to justify employment drug tests.
Some of the cost of lost productivity claims are made by the companies that provide drug testing services. Hmmm…does that mean they stand to make a few bucks if more drug testing is done. The ACLU identifies…
...as appropriate ways for employers to preserve high levels of productivity and assist employees with drug issues. There are many court cases nationwide disputing the legality of drug testing programs. Historically employees have had little defense against being drug tested as a condition of employment.
Several exceptions are union negotiated contracts and the state of California. The California state constitution spells out individual rights to privacy in government and private businesses.
employee drug testing law
Follow this link to learn more about drug testing before you’re hired.
pre employment drug testing program
My new sites provides the MOST current changes affecting career seekers and employees. Some employers are constantly working to take away the rights of employees. Follow this link to EMPLOYEE RIGHTS GUIDE, EMPLOYEE WORKPLACE RIGHTS and EMPLOYEE RIGHTS VIDEOS for the latest employee news you can use!
What matters to me...is to help my fellow employee!
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