Developments in Regulating Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing
A Florida county park ranger was lawfully terminated from his job after he failed to take a drug test following a vehicular accident, where the county believed he had sustained an injury and where its drug testing policy provided that the county could require him to seek workers’ compensation medical treatment for the injury. Granting…
A tip regarding employee on-the-job drug use by an unidentified source, relayed second-hand by a news reporter, is insufficient to establish individualized reasonable suspicion (required under the Fourth Amendment) to require a public employee to submit to a drug test, according to a recent decision by the United States District Court for the Eastern District…
An employee’s admission of off-duty marijuana use was not “misconduct” sufficient to deny unemployment benefits, even if it may have been a sufficient reason for his discharge, according to an Illinois appellate court. Eastham v. The Housing Authority of Jefferson County, No. 09-MR-57 (Ill. App. Ct. 5th Dist. Dec. 2, 2014).
Eastham worked for…
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who recently was booked on felony child abuse charges in Montgomery County, Texas, reportedly admitted that he “smoked a little weed” in violation of the conditions of his bond, which required drug testing. While giving a urine sample last month, he allegedly told an employee of the testing company…
A Michigan appellate court has held that an employee who holds a state medical marijuana card is not disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits after the employee has been terminated for failing a drug test, where the employee received a positive test result for marijuana or its metabolites. Thus, the question we posed earlier this year,…
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued on September 30, 2014 a reminder to Medical Review Officers (MROs) concerning transportation employees’ use of prescription medications. Specifically, the reminder addressed the process to be followed when verifying drug test results of employees who use prescription medications, as well as the MRO’s obligation to raise fitness-for-duty concerns…
Employees regulated by U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) drug and alcohol testing regulations are required to report for drug or alcohol tests within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the employer. A failure to show up or significant delay in reporting for testing may be deemed a “refusal to test,” as a municipal…
A new study published by Quest Diagnostics reported an increase in the workforce drug test positivity rate for the first time in ten years, fueled primarily by marijuana and amphetamines. The Quest Drug Testing Index (DTI) released on September 11, 2014 also showed a large increase in positive marijuana test results in Colorado and Washington,…
Are employers at risk in their ability to conduct lawful post-accident drug and alcohol tests?
Maybe.
At least that is the answer for the many employers who are subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s recordkeeping rule (29 CFR Part 1904).
OSHA, in a “Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” published recently in the Federal…
A “reasonable suspicion” drug test triggered by an employer’s discovery of apparent drug paraphernalia did not violate a public employee’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, a court in Arkansas has held. Brotherton v. Hill, No. 4:12-cv-534 (E.D Ark. Sept. 4, 2014).
Brotherton worked as a boiler operator at the…
