Thursday, March 7, 2013

Protecting Your Business And Employees With Mobile Drug Testing Texas

By Ava Hudson


Hiring and maintaining a workforce is a constant juggling act, as the employer balances the needs of the company with the needs of the workers. Naturally, companies feel they are entitled to have their employees at work on time and at their best, free of illegal performance degrading substances. In order to ensure the workforce stays free of chemical influence, the use of mobile drug testing Texas is prudent.

Merely having good intentions is not enough to successfully create a program to keep the influence of chemicals out of the workforce. Unfortunately, there is no universal law to facilitate this process. The federal government passed legislation mandating employees be tested for illegal substances, but it made its provisions applicable only to federal employees.

Each state passes its own legislation regarding the implementation of processes to keep illegal substances out of the workplace. The Lone Star state allows considerable freedom to employers in the initiation of such programs. They even allow companies to implement policies that stipulate a single failure as grounds for dismissal.

States can give considerable latitude to employers in implementing policies to keep chemicals out of the workplace, but there are still basic protections for all US citizens spelled out in the constitution. Employers seeking to initiate a program would do well to research the legal protections to avoid any complications. Fairness and reasonableness are the keys to success.

The Fifth Amendment to the constitution protects us from policies that do not allow for due process of law. This means the employer must be careful in the application of such processes. The assessment must be impartially and fairly implemented across logical sections of the labor force or across all employees.

Another concern is whether or not every employee must be subject to substance abuse policies . The courts have held that it is legal and fair to include employees involved in dangerous and difficult and leave other employees out. This reasonable clause means that those jobs which have greater risks are a logical group for inclusion, but the protection is that if a certain group is selected, then all of those employees similarly employed must participate.

The legal environment may appear to make it difficult for employers, but as long as the goal is honestly the prevention of mishaps and protection of people and resources, the effort will succeed. There are simple checks of a proposed policy that will ensure it can meet legal standards. It needs to clarify who is subject to the policy, what chemicals are the subjects of any analysis, what will happen if one tests positive, and it must be clearly communicated to all employees.

When a company elects to act to ensure their work force remains free of illegal substances in the sincere effort to keep workers and the public safer, they will succeed. But even the best run programs can leave employees feeling anxious about the process. Using an impartial outside agency like mobile drug testing Texas can resolve the issue.




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