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| Drug Screening Information |
Drug screening, and particularly random drug screening, is not permitted in every state in the U.S. A business should check their state's labor laws. Depending on the state and situation, there are various ways in which an employer is able to respond to failed drug tests. For example, the Americans With Disabilities Act states that a person with alcoholism has a disability which is protected under the ADA. It also states that a company may not refuse to hire an individual because of his or her alcoholism, and may not punish an alcoholic employee more severely than other employees.
In states like California, drug screening remains a thorny issue, because companies must carefully enforce any drug-screening policy in a way that does not increase their exposure to employment-related tort claims, especially for invasion of privacy.
Generally, there are four types of drug testing: pre-employment screening, random testing based on "reasonable suspicion" and post-accident testing. One common theme for all types of testing is that providing employees with advance written notice of a drug-testing policy diminishes an employee's (or applicant's) reasonable expectation of privacy. |
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