Drug Screening in NY

KenB

Does anyone know if random drug testing of employees using safety sensitive equipment is prohibited, restricted or otherwise regulated in NY? We drug test our CDL employees using the DOT guidelines and would like to also drug test employees using safety sensitive equipment. However, I know many states restrict or have laws regarding drug testing and I'm not sure what the law is in New York.

If anyone knows or can direct to a place that I can find out, that would be much appreciated.

Rexxies

Doug:

I'd suggest contacting your local Health provider or someone like Quest Diagnostics, who are the nation's largest drug screen company. You can also go online @ [url]www.questdiagnostics.com[/url].

However, it would really depend on your policy. I worked in mfg and we had a pre-employment drug screen for everyone but our policy also stated we could do 'for cause' testing but we didn't confine it to the safety-sensitive only. Frankly, however, we tended to only have those incidents where the employees on the floor seemed to be under the influence--of all those we stopped & did a for cause test, all were positive (altho 1 refused to take it) and our policy stated if you refused, you would automatically be suspended pending termination. Reality was we used heavy machinery, we have furnaces and glass everywhere so you had to do this. If you are not currently doing it pre-employment, especially where you have safety sensitive positions (and all our positions including Production Mgr we classified as safety sensitive cuz he could put on a uniform & gloves and go to work at a moment's notice), then I would suggest identifying exactly whom you consider safety sensitive & run it by an attorney--we did to insure we covered our bases.

Good luck.

mets

In my former NY company (mfg) we had a policy of pre-employment drug screening, random, post accident and "for cause" testing. This was perfectly legal. But then again, it was administered broadly across-the-board.
Think you can identify the positions to be included and conduct the testing without any interferences. I would assume that the company you are using now could provide some assurances.
Good luck.