Workers who report an on-the-job injury may not be subject to mandatory drug testing if a new rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that prohibits blanket post-injury drug tests withstands a court challenge from employers.
In May, OSHA published a rule prohibiting employers from having policies that force employees hurt on the job to take drug tests because of concerns about retaliation. This blog has long recognized the potential for retaliation that mandatory drug tests pose and supports the proposed rule by OSHA. OSHA’s new rule was drafted at roughly the same time as the release of the U.S. Department of Labor report that was critical of the shortcomings in state workers’ compensation systems.
Though OSHA implemented the limits on drug testing to limit retaliation, the rules limiting drug testing also help preserve employee doctor choice, which is an integral part of workers’ compensation law in Nebraska and other states. Many employers will inform employees that they must get drug tested at an occupational medicine clinic if they have a work injury even if workers have a right to see their own doctor. This can lead to employees being forced back to work too soon and or not receiving sufficient treatment for their work injuries. Both the fear of retaliation and the circumvention of doctor choice rules lead the costs of work injuries to be borne by employees, which is a major concern of the Department of Labor.
Due to push back from employers, the rule’s enforcement will be postponed until Nov. 1 and will likely be delayed longer due to a court challenge to the rule. A challenge to a Labor Department rule deeming that home health aides were employees for the purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act took over a year to work its way through the federal courts, until it was upheld by a federal circuit court in June.
Even if the rule is implemented, post-injury drug testing will not disappear from the workplace. Employers can still test if they have a reasonable suspicion of intoxication or drug use. Most federal and defense contractors will be exempt from the OSHA rule, as well as truckers and railroad employees. Furthermore, in states with drug-free workplace laws, mandatory post-injury testing may still be permitted, depending on the language of the statute. Nebraska allows employers to fire an employee who refuses a lawful request for a drug test. If the new OSHA rule is ultimately upheld by the federal courts, I would expect a push by employers to amend drug-free workplace laws.
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