Substance Abuse Testing

Mar 2, 2016

Bargaining unit employees who hold a “Testing Designated Position” or TDP are subject to random, post-accident, and reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing pursuant to DOT Order 3910.1C.

Employees subject to substance abuse testing have the following rights:

To notify the supervisor of their wish to obtain union representation as soon as the employee learns that they are to be tested;
To be given notice of where and when to appear for substance testing in a private and confidential manner, and it shall not be done in a public manner;
To have a union representative present to observe the actions of the collector, provided the representative does not interrupt or interfere with the collection process;
To be allowed to confer with the union representative for a reasonable period of time not to exceed ten (10) minutes prior to and ten (10) minutes immediately after the sample collection process has been completed;
To not be selected for testing for reasons unrelated to the purposes of the testing program;
That testing will be conducted in a secure, sanitary area, and the privacy and dignity of the employee will be respected;
That only employees who are in a duty status shall be subject to substance testing;
For post accident testing, testing shall only be conducted on employees whose work performance at or about the time of the covered event provides a reason to believe that such performance may have contributed to the accident or incident, or cannot be completely discounted as a contributing factor to the accident or incident.
For reasonable suspicion testing, testing must be based on specific objective facts and reasonable inferences drawn from these facts in the light of experience. Reasonable suspicion does not require certainty, but mere “hunches” are not sufficient to meet this standard. The employee will be provided a written statement setting out the basis for establishing reasonable suspicion. In the event that a reasonable suspicion test produces a negative result, any references to reasonable suspicion including, but not limited to the written statements are expunged from all formal and informal files.