Drug Testing??

MHarris

We got an anonymous call today explaining that one of our delivery drivers was seen purchasing cocaine while in the process of a delivery. The call made it to our VP who indicated that caller described the truck and employee and was looking at him while he was making the call.

When this employee does return to the yard we will observe him for signs of drug use, however, the situation gets a bit sticky after that. Do we have the right to send him for a drug screen based solely on the call. I have found in the past that the drama of employees' lives often follows them to work and I have heard worse from callers that later has turned out to be part of spousal arguement, etc. Do we have the right to search the vehicle and his person? How do we protect ourselves in a situation like this? And, should I at least comfront the ee with the allegations. Please advise.

MS HR

If you have a written policy or collective bargaining agreement you definitely need to follow it. If you are covered by DOT regulations, I think you are justified in observing and testing.

ray a

We do monthly random drug screens and if someone is "turned in" and I suspect there could be some truth, I will include them in the next random list.

mjindra

I don't think you can specify somebody in a random test, can you? Aren't you supposed to be pulling names "randomly"?

We had a similar call a couple weeks ago. An anonymous call about a "high" employee, although we have not seen any problems with her behavior. I was not in the office that day and the rest of management actually called the police and had an officer come in and listen to the voice mail. I'm still fuming about that one.

We did nothing besides watch for odd behavior from the employee.

If my husband was upset at me and called my boss and left messages for him, I wouldn't want it effecting my job, and there's no way to tell where this call came from.

ray a

Mjindra, you are correct. At our corporate office, my boss calls the provider and they will make sure the name he gives shows up on the random list. My provider will not do that. I've only had two ocassions where an ee was turned in. One was from a soon-to-be exhusband. I ignored that one knowing the full story. The other, our VP saw an engineer exiting a local house of questionable character. Somehow his name showed up on "my" list the next month. x;-) Is it a risk? Sure. But, he passed the screen - no harm, no foul. As it turns out, he was probably at that house for other illicit reasons, not drugs.

earlru

The person can not be tested as a random drug screen, however you have the right to test the person as a Reasonable Suspicion/Cause. The catch is that he must be escorted to the drug testing facility and back.

Also document the information that was received to cover your legal liability. IF the drug screen comes back negative no problem. If the test come back positive follow your company policy concerning this situation.

If the driver is covered under DOT regulations you can read the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations, section 382 of the 49 CFR covering drug and acohol testing. If you do not have the regulation manual you can look this up on the internet at [url]www.fmcsa.dot.gov[/url].

WOCO Frank

I've had four people "turned in" in the past month or so. 2 clean, 2 dirty. But I always test them, no matter how strange the call.