Employers Win Most Drug Testing Cases
David Shadovitz, Human Resource Executive
A new book released by the Institute for a Drug Free Workplace in Washington reveals that employers are winning most drug testing related court battles. Employers prevailed in roughly two-thirds of the nearly 1,200 legal decisions on drug testing, according to the book, 2004-2005 Guide to State and Federal Drug Testing Laws.
In the last year,” says Gina M. Petro, counsel to the institute and a co-author of the guide, “87 court decisions upheld drug testing, and 46 did not.” Since the group began tracking suits in the mid-1980’s, employers prevailed in 825 cases, while challenges have been successful in only 374 cases. The numbers are somewhat higher for federal court cases, in which employers have prevailed 76 percent of the time.
Criminal background checks incomplete How convicted felons can slip through safety net
By Bob Sullivan, Technology correspondent, MSNBC
Updated: 5:06 p.m. ET April 12, 2005
Is there a felon in the next cubicle? What about in your child's afterschool athletic league?
Employers and volunteer organizations are increasingly turning to national commercial database searches provided by private firms to ferret out potential convicts from their ranks. The searches are quick, inexpensive, and promise nationwide coverage -- in theory, preventing convicted felons from moving away from a checkered past.
But experts say the nationwide tallies are often full of holes, and contain as few as 70 percent of all felony conviction records, leading in turn to a false sense of security. Read article at MSNBC.
