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http://said.dol.gov/StateLawList.asp#UT
Employee
drug and alcohol abuse costs American employers billions of dollars in
decreased productivity, increased liability insurance and higher
workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Employers may be liable for
the negligence of an employee under the influence of drugs or alcohol
and they may also be liable for negligently hiring an employee with a
history of abusing drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, drug and alcohol abuse
is also blamed for high employee absentee rates. All of these factors
give employers an incentive to test their job applicants and current
employees for illegal drugs or alcohol.
Because
state and federal laws have been passed to allow employers to test their
employee for on-the-job drug or alcohol abuse, the odds an individual
may be subjected to a drug test have increased markedly in today’s
society. Whether required by a government agency or a private employer,
drug tests are being used, and in some cases, are mandatory, in order to
either screen an individual for drugs or as an incentive to keep an
individual from using drugs. The more these tests are required, the more
Americans become accustomed to them. It follows that when more Americans
become accustomed to drug testing, then those tests will become even
more pervasive. Today, individuals subject to drug testing include
government employees, military personnel, those, involved in the
transportation industry, student athletes, and countless other employees
who consent to drug testing as a condition of employment and continued
employment.
To this
class of individuals, legislators may require other individuals to
submit to drug testing, such as welfare and other public assistance
recipients and anyone arrested under Federal law. Drug tests are
routinely required as a condition of parole. The legislature of
Louisiana, for example, has expressly declared a state of emergency to
exist in Louisiana as a result of the “”spiraling increases of abuse
of illegal substances by its citizens” and it further found that
“”such illegal drug abuse presents a clear and present danger to the
health, welfare and security of the state”. Louisiana has directed its
Commission of Administration to establish a random drug testing program,
beginning on January 1, 1998, for anyone who receives anything of
economic value or funding from the state. Conceivably, other state or
federal laws may be enacted requiring individuals to submit to a drug
test in order to receive any government benefit, perhaps to renew a
state driver’s license. Doubtless such plans in their extreme would be
unconstitutional, however, both state and federal courts have been
willing to extend the use of drug testing for purposes of safety,
improved workplace efficiency, national security and to deter drug use.
The
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to
protect citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures conducted by
the federal government. The Fourth Amendment was intended to protect the
personal privacy and dignity of every citizen against unwarranted
intrusions by the government. A search can be defined as a government
intrusion into an area where a person has a reasonable and justified
expectation of privacy. A seizure may be defined as the exercise of
control by the government over a person or thing. It is well settled by
American courts that requiring an individual to provide a urine sample
for the purpose of performing a drug or alcohol test constitutes a
search and seizure which implicates an individual’s fourth amendment
right. Depending upon the facts and circumstances surrounding the
search, it may be unconstitutional to be required to provide such a
sample. The constitutionality of a drug or alcohol test, the United
States Supreme Court has said, depends upon the,"reasonableness”
of the test. What is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment depends upon
the specific facts and circumstances of each case. The definition of
“”reasonableness” has evolved over the years and continues to
evolve by decisions made by the country’s judiciary branch. Certainly,
what is reasonable today was not reasonable twenty or thirty years ago.
The
Fourth Amendment by its terms prohibits only the federal government from
conducting unreasonable searches and seizures. However, the Fourteenth
Amendment prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty or
property without due process and equal protection of the law. Through
this so-called “”due process” clause of the Constitution, the
United States Supreme Court has determined that most of the protections
of the Bill of Rights, including the right to be free from unreasonable
searches and seizures, also apply to the states. Consequently, neither
the federal nor any state government or agency may conduct an
unreasonable search or seizure. This means neither the federal
government nor a state government can conduct an unreasonable drug or
alcohol test.
On the
other hand, there is no constitutional prohibition for a private
individual or organization to conduct what would otherwise be an
unreasonable drug test. For example, a private employer may require an
employee to submit to a suspicionless drug test as a requirement of
continued employment. Depending upon the facts of how and why such a
test is conducted, an individual who believes his or her employer has
conducted an unreasonable drug or alcohol test may sue the private
employer for an invasion of the employee’s right to privacy. An
employer may be found civilly liable for such an intrusion if a judge or
jury decided that the required drug or alcohol test pried upon the
private affairs of the employee in an objectionable manner. For example,
an employer who directly observes an employee provide a urine sample
might be liable for an invasion of the employee’s privacy. Under
current state and federal law, however, courts are more and more willing
to allow employment-related drug and alcohol testing. Some states have
enacted their own legislation to guide employer in how and under what
circumstances they may test their employees. Other states have not
enacted any such laws. In those states, an aggrieved employee may let an
arbitrator, judge or jury decide, as the case may be, as to whether the
employer has unreasonably intruded into a person’s right to privacy.
Thirty,
or one-hundred years ago, asking an employee to submit a urine sample as
a condition of continued employment would be unbelievable and most
certainly it would be considered an invasion of the employee’s
privacy. Today, such testing is so commonplace that it generates almost
no opposition. The Wall Street Journal reported that about 90% of
Fortune 200 companies have drug-testing programs. Society now readily
tolerates what would have been considered an invasion of privacy. The
remarkable aspect about employment drug and alcohol testing is how
acceptable it has become in such a short period of time.
In 1986
while Nancy Reagan was extolling the virtues of her “”Just Say No”
campaign, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order no. 12564.
Although this executive order prohibited Federal employees from using
illegal drugs, the importance of the order was that it required the head
of each Executive agency to establish an actual drug-testing program for
employees in sensitive positions. The order also set guidelines for the
drug-testing program.
The key
to this order was that only those Federal employees in
"sensitive” positions were to be tested. Surely drug testing
should be permitted, the reasoning went, if individuals concerned with
the country’s national security were using illicit drugs. This
executive order was signed before the Cold War ended and before the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Under such circumstances, it seemed all
too reasonable to screen federal employees in key military positions for
drugs. But Reagan’s plan included other types of workers.
Others
besides government employees in “”sensitive” positions were
permitted to be screened under Ex. Order 12564. Specifically, there were
three instances where such tests were permitted. First, when there was a
reasonable suspicion that any employee was using illegal drugs, that
individual could be required to submit to a test. Second an employee in
a “sensitive” position could be tested for drugs or alcohol as part
of a post-accident investigation Last, employees could be subject to
testing as part of a follow-up to drug or alcohol counseling or
rehabilitation.
After
President Reagan signed Ex. Order 12564, the United States Congress
passed the Drug-free Workplace Act of 1988. The Act neither encourages
nor prohibits the drug testing of employees. However, under the Act,
federal contractors who contract for property or services of $25,000 or
more are required to maintain a workplace free of illegal drugs. The Act
generally requires federal agency contractors and employers who received
federal grants to certify to the contracting agency that they will
provide a drug-free workplace. Further, the Act requires the contractors
and employers to notify their employees that drug manufacture,
distribution, possession or use is prohibited. If a contractor fails to
comply with the Act, the government may suspend payments or terminate
the contract, so the contractor has an incentive to comply. As will be
shown, many states have adopted a similar version of the Drug-free
Workplace Act that applies to contractors dealing with the state.
After the
Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, Congress enacted the Omnibus
Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991. The 1991 Act was enacted to
address alcohol and drug testing of workers in safety-sensitive
positions throughout the transportation industry. Under the 1991 Act,
the Secretary of Transportation is to issue rules requiring mass transit
operators who receive federal funds to conduct pre-employment,
reasonable suspicion, random and post-accident testing for those
employees responsible for safety-sensitive functions. Congress ensured
compliance with the 1991 Act in its usual way: those organizations that
failed to institute the testing procedures would lose their federal
funding.
The
Department of Transportation has promulgated its testing rules and they
apply to anyone operating commercial motor vehicles in interstate or
intrastate commerce, which essentially means any commercial motor
vehicle operator. A commercial motor vehicle operator, in turn, means
anyone operating a vehicle with a gross combined weight of 26,001
pounds, or a vehicle that is designed to transport 16 or more
passengers, or is of any size but is used to transport hazardous
materials.
If a
driver fails a Department of Transportation drug test, the driver must
be immediately removed from performing safety-sensitive functions. The
employee may resume performing his or her duties only after an
evaluation for substance abuse and compliance with those treatment
recommendations. However, the employer is free to discharge a driver or
mechanic who tests positive.
Two of
the most important cases that are still relied upon today examined these
early federal drug testing programs. In Skinner v. Railway Labor
Executives Assoc. and the companion case of Natl. Treasury Employees
Union v. Von Raab, the United States Supreme Court formed the basis of
current employment drug testing laws. In kinner, the court stated that
performing drug tests upon railway workers served the compelling
government interest of protecting the public from drug-impaired railway
workers and that those workers have a reduced expectation of privacy. In
Von Raab, the court said that not all United States Customs agents could
be tested for drugs - only those who carried firearms. The court
required employers to examine whether the employee was in a
“,’safety-sensitive” position in order to require drug and alcohol
testing.
Other
occupations that are highly regulated by the federal government are also
subject to mandatory drug and alcohol testing. For example, the military
has long tested its members, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tests
employees under its purview. The Commerce Department and Justice
Department also test employees. Basically, if you carry a firearm or
work with sensitive information for the federal government, you will be
subject to drug and alcohol testing.
After it
became commonplace for federal employees to be given drug and alcohol
tests, states started following suit. Presently, 32 states have enacted
employment drug or alcohol testing laws and while most are fairly
similar in describing how and under what conditions an employee may be
tested, there are also many variations. For example, some of these laws
protect the employees from workplace testing while others protect and
even encourage employers to conduct employee tests. Certain states give
workers’ compensation premium discounts to employers who adopt drug
and alcohol testing programs while other states remain neutral or even
opposed to employer-mandated testing. Some states allow an employee to
be discharged for a first-time positive test while others require the
employee to undergo treatment first. Finally, some states have enacted
no employment drug and alcohol testing laws. In these cases, the
employee’s collective bargaining agreement often limits the options an
employee has. However, in all states, an employee may have a cause of
action against an employer for an invasion of the employee’s privacy
under extreme cases. What follows is a survey of each state’s
employment drug and alcohol testing laws and some important cases which
indicate how a state’s highest court has ruled in that area of law.
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