About Employment Drug Screening
As this article points out, drug use accounts for $100 billion dollars annually in lost work time, accidents, health care costs and workers compensation costs, making a drug test as important as the criminal background check.
Employment drug screening has become a requirement for many companies. The majority of all Fortune 500 companies do drug testing. The US Department of Labor has estimated that drug use in the workplace costs employers up to $100 billion dollars annually in lost work time, accidents, health care costs and workers compensation costs.
Pre employment drug screening helps the employer to develop a healthier and more productive workforce and improve profits. Employers are encouraged, through the drug-free workplace program, to monitor drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace.
Legally employers have established that it is within their rights to ensure the workplace is free from hazards and one of the best ways to protect your workplace is to aggressively screen out drug abusers before they become employees. An employer can establish a program for testing job applicants for drug usage as long as it is administered fairly and consistently and is in line with federal and state laws.
The laws concerning employment drug screening vary from state to state. Some states require that employers may only test applicants once they have been formally offered a position conditional on a negative drug test. Other states do not have this requirement. Go to Department of Labor State Laws to find out the laws that apply to employment drug testing in your state.
Generally these requirements for pre employment drug screening are followed by employers:
* Employers have a written drug testing policy that requires job applicants to be drug-free
* Written notice of testing is given before the applicant may be tested. Many drug and alcohol testing laws require that job applicants be notified in advance that they may be tested and under what conditions
* Written notice is given to the applicant that drug testing is required before hiring. This may be done through the employment application form or on a specific form given out at the first interview
* The written notice details the type of drug testing that will be carried out and lists the over-the-counter medications that may produce a positive result
* In accordance with certain state laws the applicant may need to be given a conditional job offer letter that indicates that the offer is conditional on completion of a drug test with a negative result
* The same testing program should be implemented for all applicants in a particular category or there could be implications of discrimination
It is worth noting that a company with over 15 employees is subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination. This Act prohibits pre employment medical examinations before a conditional offer of employment has been made but a test to determine if an applicant is illegally using drugs is specifically exempted from the definition of what constitutes a medical examination. However pre employment alcohol testing is considered an medical examination and can only be conducted after the candidate has been extended a conditional offer of employment.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I am surprised that a lot of companies I have worked for never drug tested any employees. One company I still currently work for uses a PEOthat gives random drug testing for current employees. A computer randomly selects a few employees a day to do drug testing but there is no pre-employment drug tests. I think for some positions in companies it is necessary to have pre-employment drug testing.