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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman