The Implications of Testing for Drugs at Work

Summary

A variety of factors, at both people's personal lives and workplaces have an impact on the aptitude to work steadily. The use of drugs or alcohol may be one of them. The usage of alcohol and other drugs becomes an occupational issue if an employee's aptitude to exercise coordination, judgment, concentration, alertness and motor control at the workplace is messed up, leading to higher risks of incidents to others or themselves and harm to the name and repute of the company. Hence drug testing at workplaces has become a usual practice to protect the organization from any potential reputation damage. The consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol while at work is thus intolerable, apart from in relation to any responsible and authorized use of alcohol at company social functions. Employees should offer themselves for work and remain, whereas at work, proficient of carrying out their work duties steadily. For employers, drugs and/or alcohol can cause a number of issues. In some cases, its usage may lead to injuries, loss of life and damage to equipment while it also turn out to be a harm to the status and reputation of an organization. Employers have a general compulsion to ensure that their employees are not addicted to alcohol or any illicit drugs that can cause harm to other people working in the organization as well as the status of the company. Hence the employers make sure that their workers are not exposed to risks that could crop up from some workers being spoiled drugs or alcohol and, where they may come to pass, address them using a systematic risk management procedure. But in actual fact, drug testing or screening is a very sensitive issue due to a number of employment allegations involved. Protecting the agreement of the employees to the principle of screening is indispensable (apart from cases of pre-employment screening), to a certain extent due to the involvement of legal and practical issues. Many organizations mainly those in protection sensitive industries use testing and screening as a means of controlling drug tribulations. However, employers should also take care of the privacy of their employees and also inform them about the screening at least fifteen days before the drug testing so that they can refrain from taking anything to make sure that they are tested negative.

Table of Contents

Summary2

Introduction5

Discussion7

What do you think are the reasons behind the role undertaken by the HR department on these issues?7

What are the legal issues, which might be taken up by the dismissed employees?8

Drug-Free Workplace Act of 19889

ADA and Rehabilitation Act9

What are the legal/ethical issues that the company (rather than the HR department) might be concerned with?10

Human Rights10

Work-Life Balance10

Fairness and Equality11

He is to meet, informally, with the Chair of the regional branch of the relevant trade union. What advice would you give him?12

Employment Laws HR Act12

Conclusions13

References17

The Implications of Testing for Drugs at Work

Introduction

HR or the Human Resource in modern organizations is responsible for the entire management of ...