Description
FORUM 1 - Every student must make 3 comments in their Learning Community, the first of which is due by October 3. Please see instructions under the "Grade Information" tab under Modules.
This week we are reading about Constitutional issues. The topic of employer drug testing falls under this category. As the reading tells us, public employees, that is, workers employed by a public entity such as the State, County or municipality, are protected from random drug testing by their employers because the government, or employer in this case, may not unreasonably search a citizen under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The law also provides that public employers who have a "reasonable individualized suspicion" that a worker may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol may test an employee. Public employees in safety-sensitive positions, such as police and fire fighters may also be tested. In the private sector, any employer may randomly test any employee at any time.
I think we can all agree that workers in "safety sensitive" positions such as police officers, firemen, truck drivers and others whose marijuana use may affect the safety of others, may be randomly tested. So, please stay away from that argument. I am more interested in what students think about the privacy of workers who may have medical issues that require them to take other types of drugs. Remember that employers do not only test for illegal drugs, but also prescribed medication. I know that many of you take or know someone who takes, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications, opioids for pain or many other drugs which may be prescribed by a physician. Such information may be deemed confidential under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Does an employer have the right to know a worker's medical history? Would you want an employer to know you are taking an anti-depressant, anti-anxiety or other medications if it does not have any effect of your work?
Please discuss whether you believe that an employer has the right to drug test its employees? If not, why not? If so, why? Please consider what an employer may do with health information or how it may be used for nefarious purposes . It may be helpful for students to review some of the materials in Weeks 7 and 10. Week 7 covers the Americans with Disabilities Act and Week 10 covers Privacy Issues in the Workplace. I look forward to your comments in this forum.
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Running head: WORKPLACE PRIVACY
Workplace Privacy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
1
WORKPLACE PRIVACY
2
My Opinion on Employee Drug Test
The employees' medical history and prescriptions are confidential; hence, the employer
should not go after them. Having disclosed such information unwillingly through drug testing
may result to stress to the employee (Lu & Dillahunt, 2021). The information should be a secret
between the doctor and the patient. Despite the employers having been given the rights to drug
test their employees under exceptional circumstances in some countries such as California, they
need to consider the effect on the employee for disclosing such information. After disclosing the
information, the employee may feel unsafe and hence affect his job performance.
Employers need to be more concerned about the quality of job perf...