Court Decision-employee drug testing

deniseE

Does this case summary sound familiar to anyone?
My boss asked me to find it and I'm not having a lot of success..

Thanks!!!

I seem to recall that there was a case in which a court held that a company, which performs drug testing, could not be held liable for an employee being fired for a positive result, even if the employee could later show that the drug-testing company was negligent in performing the drug test.

TN HR

I recall something similar to this. If I remember correctly, and I am going strictly from memory here, there was a case in Texas against SmithKline (lab) that the Texas State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the lab. I am not sure the employer was involved. I do know it was upheld on appeal.

Gene

System

We have a similar case in this county. A Sheriff's Deputy had a positive drug result. When the results were reported to the County, the employee was terminated. He sued based on the incompetency of the lab technician, who had been terminated for performance reasons. The court held the position of the County in terminating the deputy. The case has been reopened. It's been ongoing since 1996.

LivindonSouth

I've forwarded your question to a labor attorney but have not heard yet. I don't see this any differently than our making an employment decision based on the results of any other type of investigatory tool we use for our business purposes. Such as employment background check, physical examination, credit check, criminal check, personal reference check. We don't guarantee the authenticity of any of those and we act on them, trusting that they are accurate. I'll post the attorney's comment if he replies.




Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.

deniseE

I didn't think about it from that angle Don.

Liability and RESPONSIBILTY are different things, I guess.

LivindonSouth

Although my attorney friend did not cite the case specifically, here is what he said.

"You could certainly argue that you were acting in
good faith as an employer in relying on test results and if the testing firm was negligent but you did not know or have reason to know of their
negligence, you could make an argument that the termination should stand, but a lot of other factors could play a role here, such as
whether this is a unionized facility, what state you're in, what the basis was for the employee's lawsuit (discrimination, wrongful discharge, etc)."