Positive Drug Screen and Rehires

Ruskanen

1. Do any of you rehire employees that have tested positive for drug screens? 2. Do you let applicants reapply if they fail the pre-employment drug screen? 3. If so, under what circumstances do you let these people reapply?
4. Are there liability issues in hiring someone that you know has previously failed a drug screen with your company?
5. If you do hire someone that has failed a drug screen, how does that fit into a zero tolerance drug and alcohol policy?

Gillian

We don't do physicals, so I can't answer all your questions, but do have an opinion in a couple of areas. First, if you hire someone who previously flunked a drug test, you know that they haven't gone through a rehabilitation program, then that person hurts someone, you may be liable along the thinking of negligent hiring. I think that the zero-tolerance idea may run afoul of the ADA in certain circumstances. Unless something has changed and I missed it, I believe that a recovered drug abuser is covered by the ADA. As I recall, this applies if the person is recovered and has a history - perhaps one year without abusing drugs - not someone who got out of rehab yesterday.

Don D

Tomorrow is my third anniversary in this job. Looking back over the people I have 'rehired', without exception, the rehire decisions and the occasions I talked somebody out of 'self-terminating' appear to all have been wrong on my part. Either I accepted the judgement and recommendation of somebody else or used my own failed judgement. I'm beginning to harden to the concept of not rehiring anybody, ever, no matter what.....and I hate to find myself feeling that way.

POPEYE

I also have been "influenced" into re-hiring against my better judgment. In both recent cases it has come back to BITE us. So NO MORE.

Gillian

Don and Pop-eye - never say never. The key is rehiring against your better judgement. Rehires work fine most of the time. I remember years ago hiring one individual in the machine shop seven times - one hire and six rehires. Lots of people thought that we were nuts but the supervisor and I figured this guy could outproduce four others so it was worth it. After the last time he quit, he never returned but if we had done so, we would have probably rehired him again.

Balloonman

Never rehire or hire anyone who fails a drug test. People can get "clean" if they know a test is coming. People who fail a pre-employment drug test are idiots. We call it a stupidity test.
I would rehire someone, if they were a high level performer, had a good attitude when here, and left on good terms. That eliminates 80% of people who leave or I let go. I am not inclined to rehire. As work is slowing on our jobsites, we have evaluated our folks and I can say any that I let go, will not ever be hired back.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Don D

Damn Balloonman; don't be so soft on folks!

ray a

We perform both prescreen and random drug screens. Those who fail a prescreen are not reconsidered.

Employees who fail a random drug screen are immediately terminated, no progressive discipline. But, they are told they are eligible for rehire if they meet specific conditions. First, there must be an opening, we don't rehire them just because they have passed some program and claim to be clean - there must be a justifiable need for them. To qualify for rehire, assuming we have an open hire requisition, they must have successfully completed a drug rehab program at an approved provider. They are given the approved list at the time of termination. If they are rehired, they must agree to a monthly drug screen for as long as we feel necessary. Then we can add them to the random list whenever we believe it is necessary. In other words, we tell them we will watch them like a hawk.

Only once have I rehired an employee terminated for failing a drug test. It was an engineer. The humorous part was he was more worried about what his wife would do to him than the fact he lost his job. He went through a 12 step program, we had him evaluated by an independent source and I received a report from his counsellor. I had him take a drug screen every month, but he left us within 6 months for a new job. Was it worth it? Maybe, he was a higher level skilled employee who did perform well.