The Home Depot in Orlando has a simple message for job applicants: If you want to be on the payroll, you have to pass a drug test.
“We are a family-oriented company, and we don’t condone the use of drugs,” said Penny Ericksen, district assistant for Home Depot’s central Florida stores. “And don’t overlook the safety issue. That has to be a primary concern for our employees and our customers.”
That’s the same position many businesses and government agencies have taken with prospective and current employees, including school bus driver Linda McKenzie in Seminole County, Fla. She will find out whether her refusal to take a fourth random drug test will cost her job.
The state of Florida does not track how many companies screen employees for drugs, but more than 80 percent of nearly 100 Orlando-area businesses say they test job applicants, according to a 1995-1996 report by the Longwood-based Employers Association of Florida.
“The testing is becoming more and more prevalent,” said Christine Crews, director of human resource services for the association, a 450-member business organization. In Florida, employers get a 5 percent discount on worker’s compensation insurance premiums if they do any kind of employee drug tests as part of a state-authorized drug-free workplace program.
“In order for the employer to obtain the discount, it requires pre-employment and follow-up testing,” Crews said. Employees who have sought help from company-sponsored treatment programs for their drug problems often have to submit to follow-up drug tests. “In addition to the pre-employment tests, most companies are doing reasonable-suspicion and post-accident testing.”
Drug tests became especially popular during the early 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan declared his war on drugs, said Andy Kayton, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. The Navy has randomly tested sailors since 1982. Some central Florida employers such as Orlando Sentinel Communications and Lockheed Martin Corp. implemented drug-testing policies in the mid-1980s.
“It is an economic decision made by private employers,” Kayton said. “I can’t speak for them, but I’m assuming there are costs that are incurred by employees who are inspired by the use of drugs or alcohol. Obviously, they can create dangerous conditions for themselves or others for which a company can be liable.”
Unless you are in a safety-sensitive position such as McKenzie, government agencies can screen for illegal substances only if they have a reasonable suspicion that you’re using drugs. Safety-sensitive government workers such as police officers or school bus drivers can be tested at any time.
The rules are different for private employers. Unless you’re protected by a collective bargaining agreement that limits drug testing, private employers can test for drugs at will. That means that besides asking you to take a pre-employment test, private companies can test you for drugs at random after you have been involved in a job-related accident or just to make sure you are fit for your job.
People worried they will be victims of false-positive drug tests can ask for retests. However, although most businesses pay for initial drug tests, individuals usually have to pay for retests.
“The type of recourse you have will depend on where you are employed,” Kayton said. If you work for the government, you could try to challenge the validity of the testing methods, he said. “Many private employers also have those same types of processes in place.”
The fate of people who test positive and don’t challenge the results rests with their employers. While some companies support on-the-spot dismissals of anyone who fails a drug test, others sponsor treatment programs for admitted substance abusers.
Most drug tests are based on urinalysis, which can detect the presence of cocaine for three or four days after use and marijuana for about three weeks after use.
Employee drug testing made the news recently when McKenzie refused to submit to a random drug test for the fourth time in 20 months. Even though McKenzie had passed three times, her refusal amounted to failure and she was suspended without pay. McKenzie, who has said she didn’t want to take the test because she needed to care for her bedridden mother, has appealed.
Since January 1995, the Seminole County school system has complied with a federal law that subjects all bus drivers to drug tests, said John Reichert, ombudsman and director of human resources and professional standards for the Seminole County public schools. Of the county’s 430 school bus drivers, just four have tested positive, he said. “Overall, the policy has been well received,” Reichert said.
The Seminole County School Board will decide whether McKenzie should be allowed to keep her job.
Construction companies and other private blue-collar industries have long tested employees for drugs. For example, people eager to work for Kelsey Construction in Orlando have to pass pre-employment drug tests as well as subsequent tests “if there is a reason,” said office/personnel manager Marcine Wells.
White-collar businesses have caught the drug-testing bug too.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drugs,” said Universal Studios Florida spokesman Tom Schroder. Even so, the company does not screen job applicants for drugs but tests employees “if there is an incident or an accident or if the manager has a suspicion about something happening in the workplace,” he said.
Circuit City in Richmond, Va., screens employees by asking them to pass drug tests before and sometimes after they join the company, said spokesman Morgan Stewart. Instead of relying on urine-based drug tests, Electronic Data Systems required its 288 central Florida employees to pass drug tests based on hair analysis, said company spokeswoman Diane Coffman.
