Employers, Drug Testing, And Workers Compensation: What You Need To Know

Insurance Blog

Many employers feel that it is their duty and their right to drug test their employees as appropriate. But before you begin drug testing your employees, you should be aware of the way that it could potentially impact your workers compensation insurance and OSHA requirements. Though regular or random drug testing policies may be ideal for your operations, there are a few things you might not realize.

Universal Post-Accident Drug Testing Is Discouraged

OSHA has discouraged the use of universal, mandatory post-accident drug testing. What does this mean for an employer? An employer who suspects an employee was on drugs during an accident may be able to test them, if they have a reasonable suspicion. An employer may also choose to test those who have exceptionally high risk positions. But employers should not test all employees regardless of the circumstances of the accident. This is because it is a policy that could discourage employees from reporting accidents and injuries.

Drug Testing Needs to Establish a Cause 

Further to this, drug testing cannot be done to simply determine whether the employee was on drugs. It also needs to be shown that those drugs had impaired the employee in a way that made their job unsafe and caused the accident itself. An employee who is found to be on marijuana, for instance, will also need to have been in an accident that could have been caused by marijuana. If the employee's accident was not their fault -- if, for instance, something fell on them -- their drug use will have nothing to do with the claim.

There Needs to be an Effective Amount of the Drug

There are many drugs that can take quite a while to leave a person's system. As in the above example, marijuana can potentially show up in an individual's system for days, weeks, or months. As an addition to the fact that drug testing has to establish a cause, the drug testing also needs to show that there was enough of the drug in the person's system that they were currently under its influence. If there are only trace amounts of the drug (or the amount of drug wasn't sufficient for actual impairment), it can't be used to argue against the claim.

In the past, employers may have felt as though an employee on drugs would easily lose a workers compensation insurance claim. Today, the standards are much higher. Employees will generally still be able to claim workers compensation insurance unless employers can show that they were definitely intoxicated at the time and that the impairment led to their injury. For more info about workers compensation insurance, contact a company like Green Light Auto Insurance Specialists.

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21 December 2016

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