|
ACLU
Report
Urges
Businesses
to
Rethink
Employee
Drug
Testing
9/3/99
(from the American Civil
Liberties Union, http://www.aclu.org)
This Wednesday (9/1), the
American Civil Liberties Union issued a special report urging corporate
America to drop workplace urine testing, citing evidence that the tests
do not pay dividends in decreased accidents and absenteeism or increased
efficiency and productivity.
The 27-page white paper,
"Drug Testing: A Bad Investment," examines ten years of research and empirical
evidence on drug use among workers, its impact on work performance, and
whether urine testing is an effective tool for identifying drug abusers
in the workplace.
Driven by an industry-led
panic that drug use is common -- even epidemic -- in America's workforce,
employers today require tens of millions of American workers from all walks
of life -- most of whom are not even suspected of using drugs -- to pass
a urine test to get a new job or to keep the one they have.
According to the ACLU's report,
the drug testing industry's promotion of "junk science," based on unsubstantiated
claims and phantom research, has fueled the growth of employee drug testing
since the mid-1980's. But respected scientific institutions such
as the National Academy of Sciences have looked at the record and found
little support for most of the drug testing industry's claims.
"We have always believed
drug testing of unimpaired workers stands the presumption of innocence
on its head and violates the most fundamental privacy rights," said ACLU
Executive Director Ira Glasser. "Now we know that sacrificing these
rights serves no legitimate business purpose either."
Among the report's findings:
-
"Lost productivity" studies
claiming that drug users cost businesses up to $100 billion each year are
based on dubious comparisons of household drug use and income, with no
analysis of actual productivity data.
-
The moderate use of illicit
drugs by workers during off-duty hours is no more likely to compromise
workplace safety than moderate off-duty alcohol use.
-
A recent survey of 63 Silicon
Valley companies found that urine testing reduces, rather than enhances,
worker productivity.
-
Although some federal employers
and private businesses are required by law to test employees in specific
safety-sensitive occupations, most employers are under no obligation to
conduct drug testing. Yet according to a 1996 survey, 81 percent
of Fortune 500 firms conducted urine tests on their employees.
"It's time for employers to
ask themselves whether subjecting their employees to such an invasive and
humiliating procedure is worth the cost, not only in human terms, but in
actual dollars and cents," said Lewis Maltby, director of the ACLU's National
Taskforce on Civil Liberties in the Workplace and lead author of the report.
"Alternative solutions, such
as impairment testing of workers in safety-sensitive positions and wider
use of Employee Assistance Programs are more cost effective and do not
raise the same privacy and fairness problems," he added.
Maltby said he is sending
"Drug Testing: A Bad Investment" to CEOs, union officials and human resources
professionals, along with a letter urging them to consider less intrusive
alternatives to urine tests as a condition of employment.
The ACLU has also established
a toll-free number, (800) 323-8820, that human resources managers can call
for more information on drug testing and its alternatives.
The report's executive summary
is online at http://www.aclu.org/issues/worker/summdrugtesting1999.html,
and the full text is available in Adobe (PDF) format at http://www.aclu.org/issues/worker/drugtesting1999.pdf.
-- END --
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Issue #106, 9/3/99
California Governor Offers to Sign Revised Needle Exchange Bill | CASA Study Finds Marijuana Easier for Teens to Get Than Beer | Doctor Sanctioned for Undertreating Patients' Pain | Los Angeles Police Forcibly Enter Home, Kill Grandfather in Raid | News in Brief | Swiss Government Promises Marijuana Decriminalization | ACLU Report Urges Businesses to Rethink Employee Drug Testing | Media Alert: Print and Screen
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