Drug testing an employee who is injured on the job

Sydney · November 2003

Our company requires a drug test from every employee who is injured on the job and goes go to the clinic for treatment. Is it legal for us to single out one group of employees for testing? Any help would be appreciated.

Balloonman · November 2003

How is testing all who are injured singling out one group of employees? All employees..........not just one group. Yes it is legal and a cornerstone of most drug free work policies.
Just curious are you an HR professional?
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Sydney · November 2003

I work in HR. I knew our policy was legal when we set it up. Someone new at our company said they thought the law had changed and that we couldn't single out one group of employees to test. They said specifically they didn't think we could just test all employees injured on the job that require a visit to the clinic. I am glad to hear the law hasn't changed.

Thank you for your response.

Down_the_Middle · November 2003

Sydney:
Suggesting that you would only invoke the post accident testing for some employees rather than all is a bit perplexing to me and risky... What ywould be the basis for trying to adopt this practice?

Sydney · November 2003

I am sorry I wasn't clear. Our policy is to drug test all employees we send to the clinic. I don't want to change that. I was wondering if it was legal to only drug test employees we send to the clinic or do we have to expand the testing to include all employees?
Thank you for the response.

Down_the_Middle · November 2003

Unless the great state of TX has adopted some recent drug testing rules, you can certainly test all post-acident employees who go to the clinic. Doing this does not obligate you to test the rest of the workforce.

Don D · November 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-13-03 AT 07:38PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Sydney: These guys seem to be giving you a hard time. Yes, it's perfectly OK for you to have a policy requiring 'post accident drug screen' in all cases of industrial accidents. It doesn't require that the accident result in injury bad enough that you would send them for treatment. It can also apply to those who have accidents that result in the damage of company property or, for example, flipping a forklift over, but not being injured. Any accident can result in a trip to the 'pee test'. If you like, you can even include in this policy anything your company classifies as a 'near miss' such as speeding on a forklift and turning a corner on two wheels, or climbing a scaffold with no restraint device and dropping a 14 pound wrench 30 feet to the floor. There will be no challenge to that policy and it's a good policy. Don D.

Sydney · November 2003

>[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON
>11-13-03 AT 07:38 PM (CST)[/font]
>
>Sydney: These guys seem to be giving you a hard
>time. Yes, it's perfectly OK for you to have a
>policy requiring 'post accident drug screen' in
>all cases of industrial accidents. It doesn't
>require that the accident result in injury bad
>enough that you would send them for treatment.
>It can also apply to those who have accidents
>that result in the damage of company property
>or, for example, flipping a forklift over, but
>not being injured. Any accident can result in a
>trip to the 'pee test'. If you like, you can
>even include in this policy anything your
>company classifies as a 'near miss' such as
>speeding on a forklift and turning a corner on
>two wheels, or climbing a scaffold with no
>restraint device and dropping a 14 pound wrench
>30 feet to the floor. There will be no challenge
>to that policy and it's a good policy. Don D.

Don D. Thank you. You have given me plenty to think about. It might be a good idea for us to look at possibly modifying our current policy.
Sydney

Drug testing an employee who is injured on the job

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