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Volunteering to be drug tested (May 2018)
“One of our employees was involved in a minor accident at a client’s location. We sent a supervisor over to the site to investigate, and he decided it didn’t meet our criteria to post-accident test the employee. But the job owner was apparently making comments about how the incident ‘better not be drug-related.’ The employee came to me and said he’d have no problem being tested if we wanted to prove he wasn’t under the influence at the time. Normally we wouldn’t entertain this, but there have been some on-going challenges with this client and proving the incident didn’t involve drugs might help. Can I send this employee for a test since he volunteered?”
Great question! Responding to off-site incidents can be tough, especially when they involve a client and there are existing relationship challenges at play.
First, it sounds like you went through the appropriate steps to determine whether a post-accident test was warranted according to your drug-free workplace policy/program – i.e., gathering information about what happened, who was involved and any contributing factors; and putting that information next to your policy/program documents to determine if it was a qualifying accident. Since the accident did not meet your criteria for a post-accident test, then no post-accident test should take place. So far, so good.
However, if the accident doesn’t qualify for a post-accident test and you’re still considering testing him, it’s prudent to explore if there is another testing application in your policy that would justify the test. Remember, testing for alcohol and/or other drugs is a big deal. Assuming your policy does not say anything about “voluntary testing,” you’d want to be able to point to another objective reason for the test as written in your program documents:
- Obviously, you would rule out doing a random testing since the employee’s name was not selected using an objective, randomization process.
- Did your supervisor see any objective, documentable signs during his investigation that would warrant a reasonable suspicion test? Does it make sense to go back to the job owner to ask more about his “better not be drug-related” comment in case he saw something questionable?
- Does your policy include “contractor or job-owner required” testing? If so, has this job owner actually asked that your employee be tested? If not, then it doesn’t seem this application of testing would be suitable either.
So should you send the employee for a drug test just because he volunteered to do it? Without further input, let your policy be your guide since testing is a big deal and operationally you want to be able to point in your program documents to the reason for every test. But given that business relationships are critical in business, if you want to test as a show of goodwill, you might want to check with corporate counsel before proceeding with a test categorized on the chain-of-custody form as “other.”
If you’d like to strategize how to handle this or other situations, give us a call – 614-337-8200. If you’re a member of the Working Partners® Consortium, troubleshooting is a benefit of your membership.
