The FMCSA drug testing program is targeting high risk careers, where safety must be put above anything else. No employer should take the risk of hiring people who are consuming illegal substances, especially when the responsibilities they are going to carry can put the others in danger. And the best way to determine whether your suspicions are just or not is by requiring your workers, no matter if they are actual or future employees, to pass through a urine drug testing.
Established within the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) aims to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related accidents. The Administration operates a program meant to improve safety at work through the enforcement of specific regulations targeting high risk careers. Both employers and employees that are working with commercial motor vehicles are targeted by the FMCSA drug testing program. To monitor the legal enforcement of the rules, the Administration requires employers to keep records of their drug testing programs, as inspections can be done regularly.
Employees that are drug consumers pose significant problems for their employers, for those surrounding them and for the overall company, which becomes exposed to legal liability. They decrease their performance, they will be late at work or won’t even show up. And when we are talking about commercial motor vehicles duties, such employees contribute to a much dangerous environment. They threaten the safety of those surrounding them and they are a danger for themselves at the same time. Not to mention, they can cost the company a lot of money.
Drug testing can be done before hiring a new worker, when you are suspicious about drug consumption on an employee based on reliable facts, after an accident or even randomly. The procedure is based on examining a urine sample by a certified laboratory approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). If selected for testing, a worker cannot be obliged to comply. He has the right to refuse the test, but it is up to the employer to decide what is going to happen next. Such behavior can raise suspicions that can end up with the employee losing his job.
If the worker decides to take the testing, but the results turn out to be positive, he has the right to request a second testing from another laboratory. This can be done within 72 hours from collecting the sample. The original sample is divided in two parts at the beginning and only the first specimen is tested in the first round. The second specimen gives the employee the right for a secondary testing that can prove the inaccuracy of the first testing. All the results are being reviewed by a physician, which later reports them to the employer. There is a confidentiality clause between the testing laboratory, employer and employee.
Drug testing must be done by a certified specialist in order to meet all legal requirements. The FMCSA drug testing program ensures safety at work through a serious series of rules.