Employee Drug Testing

Employee Drug Testing

There are two main types of employee drug testing - pre-employment testing and post-employment testing. Every applicant must pass a pre-employment drug test before they are officially hired. There are three sub-types of post-employment drug testing - random testing, post-accident testing, and suspicion-based testing. In random testing, an employee selected at random, takes the drug test. If an employee has an on-the-job accident, they most likely will have to take a drug test whether the employer has a drug testing policy or not, as a requirement of the employer's workers compensation insurance policy. In suspicion-based testing, the employer observes employee exhibiting suspicious behavior and then has the employee perform the drug test. The argument in this case refers to random drug testing.

The legal and ethical issues involved in the issue of employee drug testing are the employee's right to privacy and the employer's right to ensure a safe work environment. The argument in assignment #3 refers to a new saliva test available to employers for their employee drug testing. It describes the saliva test as noninvasive, thereby eliminating concerns regarding the employee's right to privacy because the employee only provides a swab of saliva. They no longer have to go through the embarrassment associated with providing a urine sample or the pain experienced when having blood drawn.

The argument in assignment #3 infers that the only issue against employee drug testing is the employees' concern over having to submit to the invasive and embarrassing procedure of providing a urine sample. By using the new saliva tests, eliminates "the concerns with the right to privacy."

The concern of privacy is a much larger issue than just the physical act of providing a urine sample. It encompasses our Fourth Amendment rights granted to us by the U.S. Constitution, and our right to be innocent until proven guilty.

Courts have ruled that providing a bodily fluid sample for drug testing is a search subject to the Fourth Amendment. Searches subject to the Fourth Amendment must be supported by reasonable suspicion. But what constitutes "reasonable suspicion?" By allowing employers to randomly select employees for post-employment drug testing, the courts have granted employers the first right in the determining when there is reasonable