Abstract
As company policies on alcohol and drugs in the workplace are being developed, there has been considerable controversy about the use of drug and/or alcohol testing as a method to identify employees who have used illicit drugs or misused alcohol and/or licit medications in contravention of the policy. Proponents of substance testing tie it to their concern for employee and public safety, and to the impacts that the use/misuse of these drugs could have on workplace performance. They argue that this type of testing is an effective deterrent to the use of drugs or alcohol, and a good method of identifying employees who may have a problem or may have contravened company policies in this area. Opponents argue that a positive urine test simply confirms use of a particular drug in the recent past, but not whether the individual was impaired in any way at the time of the test. They suggested that if the real concern is safety and on-the-job performance, there should be other, less intrusive methods of identifying impaired individuals so that they can be moved out of a job prior before their performance jeopardizes safety for themselves, coworkers, or the public.
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Butler, B., Tranter, D. (1994). Behavioral Tests to Assess Performance. In: Macdonald, S., Roman, P. (eds) Drug Testing in the Workplace. Research Advances in Alcohol and Drug Problems, vol 11. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2399-4_11
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