Do I have any legal recourse if I feel my employers methods of random employee drug testing invades my personal privacy?
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Do I have any legal recourse if I feel my employers methods of random employee drug testing invades my personal privacy?
I work for a small company in public safety. Always in the past we have been sent to the local clinic where an unbiased third party would collect a sample for split urine testing that was sealed in front of me and then sent to a lab. If and when the urine tests positive for a drug they call me, I give them my prescription numbers that clear me and my employer then receives a negative drug test result. Recently my employer started allowing one of the office employees to administer saliva tests instead. My issue with this is that the saliva test gives this office employee instant results that tell what you were positive for. By the time I will have cleared my scripts my employer already knows what I’m taking.
Asked on July 5, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Ohio
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
There is no protection for your privacy in this way; you are not protected from an employer (or coworkers) finding out about a drug test result. You are also not protected from disclosing medication you are on if it could affect your employment, as medication which could produce a positive result on a drug test could. You may need to bring information about any prescriptions that could provide a positive result with you or have such available at work, so as you are taking the test, you can advise that you are on a medication that could result in a positive result. That at least should prevent from from forming an incorrect impression based on the results.
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