Question

Your employer tests all new employees for illicit drug use through urinalysis. Is this lawful? What if they also detected lawfully prescribed and used as directed medications? What if the medications showed that the individual was HIV positive? Could the employer make employment decisions based on this information?

Answer 1

The employers have the full legal right to test the employees about any kind of illegal medication or consumption of addicted material in order to ensure that the employees do not perform their duties under the effect of these substances which can harm the reputation of the organization or can hinder the customer service. There are many services such as driving, customer serving in the restaurant and many more where the employees are required to be completely drug-free. In order to ensure this, employers can conduct the test to check the status of the employees.

In case of detection of lawful lawfully prescribed and used as directed medications, no consequences will be resulting for the employee as this is done under the supervision of any physician or healthcare provider.

If the employee id detected of HIV virus in the test, no action should be taken as this test was done for the different purpose and no consent was taken from the employee about HIV detection test. This sort of test will be completely illegal and the employee has the full right to sue the employer.