Drug and alcohol abuse costs U.S. businesses billions each year in lost productivity, property loss, absenteeism and medical costs and accounts for nearly half of workers comp costs. It is no wonder then that companies have aggressively looked for ways to combat drug and alcohol abuse. Since the 1980s drug and alcohol testing programs have become widely implemented, reaching their peak in the early 1990s, but have been declining in popularity since 1996, largely due to questions about the cost/benefit of drug and alcohol testing. So is a drug and alcohol testing program right for your company?
If you have employees that fall under safety sensitive transportation classifications of Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, which includes aviation, trucking, railroads, mass transit, pipelines and other transportation industries, drug and alcohol testing is required. These are most commonly referred to as DOT drug and alcohol testing requirements, and will not be directly addressed in this article.
Iowa Code Section 730.5 provides for the following types of drug testing in the private sector.
Post-offer, pre-employment: Employers may require prospective employees to undergo testing at the employer’s expense after a bona fide job offer has been made, but prior to the start of work. Continued employment may be made contingent on negative results of the test.
Unannounced testing of workers randomly selected from pools of defined populations of employees.
Post-accident testing: Testing following accidents that are serious enough to require OSHA reporting.
Reasonable suspicion: This may include observation of substance abuse or impairment at work, abnormal behavior or performance at work, credible report of drug or alcohol use at work, evidence of tampering with a drug test, evidence that the employee has caused an OSHA reportable accident, evidence that the employee has made, sold, possessed, or used drugs while at work.
Testing during or after drug or alcohol treatment programs.
Testing as required by federal laws or regulations (ie. under DOT requirements).
So, that is what you can legally do in Iowa. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of drug and alcohol testing.
The Pros
As already noted, drug and alcohol abuse can create huge liability and costs for employers. The rationale of drug and alcohol testing programs is that they will help companies select employees less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and serves as a deterrent against abuse for existing employees.
There is no consensus on how effective these programs actually are in achieving this though. Yes, they will weed out substance abusing job candidates, and yes, occasionally an employee will test positive on a random, post-accident, or reasonable suspicion test, and the fact that the policies are in place most certainly has some level of deterrent effect.
But study results vary. For instance the annual Drug Testing Index published by Quest Diagnostics shows that positive drug testing results fell from 13.6 percent in 1988 to 3.8 in 2006, which they attributed to widespread testing programs by employers. On the other hand, researchers at Le Moyne University in a study of high tech industries found that companies with drug testing programs actually had lower productivity than those who did not.
Having such a program in place does send a strong message to employees, customers, and the community that the company is committed to providing a work environment that is free from substance abuse. If communicated well, such a program can actually be a morale booster to employees as a whole who understand the dangers of substance abuse in the workplace and appreciate that their employer is taking action against it.
To the extent that having a drug and alcohol testing program can contribute to lower drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace, the company can enjoy lower costs and higher profits as a result of lower employee turnover, fewer accidents, lower workers comp costs, higher employee morale and greater productivity.
The Cons
The program can be costly. The individual tests run less than $50 each, but by the time you include the costs of administering the entire program, over time it can be very costly. In fact a congressional committee estimated the cost of each positive test in government to be $77,000, because the positive test rate was 0.5%. One of the reasons suggested for the downward trend in drug and alcohol testing in recent years has been the cost/benefit of such programs.
People wishing to beat drug tests will go to great lengths to do so. There is a whole multi-million dollar industry built around beating drug tests, products ranging from the Whizzinator to fake urine to various additives all touted as a sure way to pass drug tests and available a click away on the internet. So there is a constant race to keep technology a step ahead of those who wish to beat it.
One other factor to keep in mind before launching a drug and alcohol testing program is how it will impact the culture of the organization. If not communicated well, the program can cause discontent among employees. Some employees view drug and alcohol testing to be invasive.
The programs can also be administratively complex to administer, given the myriad of laws and administrative rules that must be followed. Under Iowa Code Section 730.5 employers are required to have the following in place in order to maintain a drug and alcohol testing program.
1. Have a policy in place that complies with Iowa Code Section 730.5, and you have distributed and communicated it to all covered employees.
2. Have an employee assistance program in place or you have a resource file where employees can access help for substance abuse problems.
3. Provide training as outlined in the Code to supervisors (2 hours the first year, 1 hour subsequent years).
Additionally, employers who do drug testing must work with qualified collection sites, laboratories and medical review officers, or if they choose to do the testing on-site, must have facilities and staff that meet the strict qualification standards.
Finally, drug and alcohol testing programs cannot assure that drug and alcohol abuse is eliminated from the workplace. To be fully effective it must rely on the training and best judgment of the supervisors and employees of the company.
There are a number of situations where drug and alcohol testing might be the preferred option, for instance, if your company is required by law to test certain populations of employees, you may want to test all employees to maintain consistency, or if you have a high risk working environment such as heavy machinery. It is never a good idea to introduce drug and alcohol testing as a way to weed out a problem employee.
Alternatives to Testing
The best place to begin is to have a zero-tolerance policy on drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace. Distribute the policy to all employees and train employees and supervisors on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, how to spot it, and what to do if they spot it in the workplace. Training your supervisors on substance abuse identification and response can be a very effective alternative to testing. If your company has an employee assistance program, the EAP professionals can be a great resource to you and your supervisors in addressing potential substance abuse cases.
Recently there has been some interest in using computer-based performance tests where employees set their own baselines, then must achieve a passing score before clocking in to work. While performance tests like this do show promise they haven’t met with wide acceptance.
Is Drug and Alcohol Testing Right For Our Company?
In the state of Iowa drug and alcohol testing is very defined. Employers considering whether it is right in their organizations need to first become familiar with Iowa Code 730.5, which covers the parameters of testing and the responsibilities of employers. Then employers need to consider how drug and alcohol testing will fit with their organizational cultures and with their business objectives to determine if that is the best alternative to achieve a drug and alcohol abuse-free workplace.
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