Developments in Regulating Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing
A California appellate court affirmed an award of emotional distress to two employees who felt pressured to submit to a random drug test. Aro v. Legal Recovery Law Offices, Inc., Case No. D065422 (unpublished) (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 8, 2015).
Plaintiffs Aro and O’Toole were employed as debt collectors by Legal Recovery Law Offices,…
Connecticut’s drug testing laws apply only to urinalysis drug tests and not to a drug test using hair specimens which led to an employee’s termination, a Connecticut trial court has held. Schofield v. Loureiro Engineering Associates, Inc., 2015 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1262 (Super. Ct., D. Waterbury, Docket No. CV 146024702S, May 22, 2015).
Plaintiff Ronald…
A Minnesota resident lost his bid to show that state laws and rules under which he lost driving privileges due to several driving-while-impaired (DWI) offenses gave rise to violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The federal court of appeals in St. Louis affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of his complaint for failing to…
A federal district court dismissed the discrimination claims of an alcoholic individual who claimed that his former employer refused to rehire him after he completed alcohol rehabilitation. Alexander v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, No. 12-cv-1959 (D.D.C. March 10, 2015).
Alexander was a former employee of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“WMATA”) who suffered…
An employee’s request to provide medical documentation excusing a positive drug test could trigger an employer’s obligations to engage in the interactive process, according to a recent decision by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Jodi Hammel v. SOAR Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14361 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 6, 2015).…
Nebraska and Oklahoma have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let them file suit against Colorado, challenging that State’s legalization of marijuana. Colorado’s neighbors contend, among other things, that the state’s marijuana legalization program violates the federal Controlled Substances Act, which makes the cultivation, trafficking and possession of marijuana unlawful and that federal law is…
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…
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,…
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…
