Ban Sought on Drug Tests for Employees

WASHINGTON —  Congress on Thursday was urged to ban most random drug testing of private employees and job applicants to protect them against “cheap and wildly inaccurate” urine tests used by a growing number of businesses.

“There are too many workers who are being subjected to bad tests, improper procedures and a profound lack of legal protection in the workplace,” Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a House hearing.

Companies that conduct tests without proper guidelines can “ruin the lives of their employees” and hinder legitimate efforts to prevent drug abuse, Schumer said. “An incorrect drug test with no chance for appeal can swiftly destroy a career and a family.”

Panel Supports Bill

Members of the House Education and Labor subcommittee on employment opportunities generally supported a bill sponsored chiefly by Schumer that would ban private, random drug testing except for “probable cause” and for workers in health or safety occupations.

Schumer’s bill would require a follow-up test using a highly sophisticated method if an initial urine test shows positive for drug use. The measure also would give employees broad access to their drug test records.

Schumer said most urine tests are “cheap and wildly inaccurate,” and that more sophisticated tests are “accurate but expensive.”

Estimate Confirmed

L. Nye Stevens of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, confirmed Schumer’s estimate that 49% of the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. businesses now administer drug tests to employees.

A recent GAO survey indicates that a minority of businesses do not provide follow-up tests to employees or job applicants who initially test positive, and do not tell applicants they were not hired because of a positive test, Stevens said.

The GAO official also reported that 13 of the 34 states surveyed do not regulate drug test laboratories and that some laboratories in about one-third of the 34 states are unregulated either by federal or state governments.

Washington lawyer David Soley said there are virtually no legal safeguards against drug testing abuses for private employees except under terms of their labor contracts.