Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2007
Source: Star-News (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Dalia Fahmy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

DRUG TESTS ON THE JOB ARE RISING, FOR MANY REASONS

There is no shortage of reasons employers test their workers for 
drugs. At one company, an employee high on marijuana forgot to lock 
the wheels on his forklift and it dropped five feet off a loading 
dock, while employees at another built a crystal meth lab in the back 
of a truck.

Workers who use drugs raise a company's insurance costs, steal 
equipment and scare away clients.

"The drug and alcohol issue is a concern for America," says Mary 
Wheeler, co-owner of Wheeler Landscaping in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who 
began screening job applicants five years ago and now randomly tests 
her 76 employees. "Until you have a drug-free workplace you don't 
realize how prevalent it is."

Companies lose $82 billion in productivity each year because of 
substance abuse, the federal government estimates. Now, a growing 
number of employers are fighting back with workplace drug programs. 
They say better technology has made drug screening more reliable, 
while insurance discounts and government grants have made it cheaper.

Screening saves

The math is simple. More than three-quarters of America's 14.8 
million drug users have jobs. Drug users are almost four times as 
likely to be involved in a workplace accident as sober workers and 
five times as likely to file a workers' compensation claim, according 
to government data. Drug users miss more days of work, show up late 
and change jobs more often. The cost of a drug test, meanwhile, is 
usually less than $50.

While drug programs are slowly becoming more popular, they still 
rarely make it to the top of an entrepreneur's priority list, says 
Richard Chaifetz, chief executive of Com-Psych, a company that helps 
employers set up drug screening and rehabilitation programs.

"Small-business owners will typically say I know my employees very 
well, nobody is abusing substances here," he says. Employers also 
often worry about violating their workers' privacy or hurting company 
morale by appearing distrustful.

Many do not know that almost 6 percent of all employees randomly 
screened and 4 percent of job applicants typically test positive, 
according to Quest Diagnostics, the largest laboratory. (Technology 
is so refined now, Quest said, that false positives almost never happen.)

When Cassie Oney, human resources director at PreCheck, a private 
investigation firm in Houston, randomly tested employees for the 
first time last year, there were no indications that anyone would 
test positive. Still, three clerical workers, or about 4 percent of 
the staff, failed the test.

"In H.R. you try to get into that 'nothing surprises me' mode, but I 
was still extremely surprised that it was those three people," Oney 
said. "One of the individuals in particular had been doing a great 
job. The other two had been long-term employees."

Pre-testing popular

Random tests are more prevalent today than they were five years ago, 
experts say, but they are still fairly rare.

Employers who do not want the bother or expense of randomly testing 
their employees opt for pre-employment screening instead. Viewed as 
the simplest and cheapest way to filter out drug users, 
pre-employment tests are also considered an effective deterrent.

"Employees who use drugs are less likely to apply at a company that 
has a drug-testing program," said Nancy N. Delogu, a labor lawyer at 
Littler Mendelson in Washington, and co-author of the Guide to State 
and Federal Drug-Testing Laws. "What small-business owners find is 
they're not getting the cream of the crop, in terms of applicants, if 
they don't do testing."

After accidents

Tests administered after a workplace accident are also considered an 
effective way to filter out drug users, especially because a large 
percentage of all industrial accidents can be attributed to drug and 
alcohol abuse. Some workers' compensation insurers require 
post-accident drug testing, and a few will even refuse to pay a 
patient's benefits if they find that drugs or alcohol caused an accident.

Drug tests yield results immediately or within a couple of days, 
depending on whether urine, hair or saliva samples are used. Urine 
and hair samples are sent to a laboratory, and take two or three days 
to process. Saliva tests can be administered on the spot by the 
employer, and the swab shows instant results.

Avoiding tests

Many business owners avoid giving drug tests altogether. Greg 
Phillips, founder of AirTegrity Wireless, a maker of broadband 
equipment in Stateline, Nev., says he does not screen job applicants 
or current staff members. "There's a lot of trust within the group, 
and we've worked together for a long time," Phillips said of his 22 employees.

Other employers worry about violating workers' privacy.

Ethical concerns notwithstanding, testing employees or job candidates 
for drug use is perfectly legal. Heather Gatley, general counsel at 
the human resources company AlphaStaff Group, says it is illegal to 
fire a worker or reject an applicant for discriminatory reasons, like 
race, age or gender. But singling someone out for drug use is not 
considered discriminatory.

In some cases, financial incentives trump all other concerns.

Companies in accident-prone industries usually want to maintain a 
drug-free workplace to keep their insurance rates down. Both health 
and workers' compensation premiums fluctuate depending on how often a 
company files for claims.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman