Developments in Regulating Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing
A Tennessee auto glass manufacturer will get a new trial to prove that drug tests it administered to its employees – including tests for prescription medications — were not “medical examinations” or “disability-related inquiries” under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Bates v. Dura Automotive Systems, Inc., No. 11-6088 (6th Cir. August 26, 2014).
In…
A federal court in Minnesota has ruled that Minnesota’s Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act (DATWA), Minn. Stat. Sections 950-957, does not apply to employees who work or are applying to work outside the state of Minnesota. Olson v. Push, Inc., No. 14-1163 (ADM/JJK) (D. Minn. Aug. 19, 2014). In Olson, the…
A federal court in Florida has held that the City of Key West’s policy of drug testing all applicants for employment was applied to an applicant in an unconstitutional manner. Karen Cabanas Voss v. City of Key West, Case No. 13-10106-CV-King (S.D. Fla. May 9, 2014).
The City of Key West conducts drug testing of…
A Texas state appeals court has ruled employers are not required to protect their intoxicated employees from injury or death, provided the employer played no role in the employee’s intoxication. Clark v. EOG Resources Inc., 12-CV-00262 (Tex. App. Houston 1st Dist. Jan. 7, 2014).
Robbie Lynn Clark, an employee of a contractor for…
A federal district court erroneously enjoined Florida Governor Rick Scott’s (R-Fl) Executive Order (No. 11-58) mandating pre-employment drug testing for all prospective new hires and random drug testing of all state employees within each agency, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta has held. (AFSCME Council 79 v. Scott, 35 (BNA) IER Cases…
An elementary public school classroom assistant was properly terminated for workplace drug abuse despite her 23 years of unblemished service and an arbitrator’s award reinstating her subject to various conditions because, a Pennsylvania appellate court has held, the award ran afoul of a “well-defined documented public policy of protecting children in school from the damages…
Possession of alcohol on plant premises in violation of a published plant rule justified an employee’s discharge, a contract arbitration board has decided, rejecting a grievance that the company lacked proper cause for imposing the penalty because the violation was inadvertent.
The company maintained a rule prohibiting, among other things, “The … possession … of…
The omission of a private action remedy from the Idaho Private Employer Alcohol and Drug-Free Workplace Act bars a wrongful discharge suit based on the Act, a federal district court has concluded, refusing to imply a cause of action in the law in the face of statutory silence on the question. Observing that no Idaho…
