Business Law: For years, courts, employers, and employees have struggled with th
ID: 326238 • Letter: B
Question
Business Law:
For years, courts, employers, and employees have struggled with the issue of employee drug testing. Employers want their employees to be drug free, whereas employees do not want to submit to an invasive and embarrassing procedure. Courts want to uphold employee’ right to privacy while allowing employer to run a safe, drug-free workplace. This issue may finally have a solution.
Recently, a new drug test has been developed that uses a swab of saliva rather than urine or blood. It is being implemented in several states already, including Georgia and Hawaii. This new test gives much faster results than urine and blood tests, and some experts believe that it might be more effective. The results of negative or nonnegative can be returned within 10 minutes, and employees who test negative can begin or return to work immediately. This faster process alleviates the stress and anxiety of employees who much be tested for drugs.
The major benefit of the new saliva test is that it is a noninvasive test. Employees do not have to suffer the embarrassment of having to ‘pee in a cup” or the painful experience of having blood drawn. Giving a swab of saliva is easy. This drug test protects employees from having to undergo an invasive or embarrassing test, while allowing employers to keep their workplaces drug free.
Allowing employers to drug test their employees is very important to keeping the workplace safe and ethical. Employees who use drugs while on the job are a danger to themselves and to others and could be responsible for lawsuits against an employer. Also, employees who break the law by taking illegal drugs might engage in other illegal activity, which could also be damaging to an employer. Allowing drug testing is the best way for an employer to keep the workplace drug free. Random drug testing has been legally questionable because of the employees’ right to privacy. The saliva drug test eliminate the concerns with the right to privacy and is a major step in helping keep the workplace safe and drug free.
Directions: Please analyze this argument. What are the legal and ethical issues involved? Is there any missing information that would help you evaluate this argument? What points could you make against this argument and for a different opinion about this topic?
Explanation / Answer
The argument about drug test is true that it is very important to allow drug test to keep the workplace safe and ethical. There are chances of many illegal activities by the employees under the influence of drug. But the drug test should not become a burden for the employees and the innocent employees should not suffer because of the lengthy procedures that need to be followed by the accused. When saliva test is used for drug detection, it is fast and very effective in detecting current intoxication. The legal and ethical issues involved in saliva testing depend on the reliability of sample collected because the saliva test is effective only for proving recent drug usage. If the sample is not recently collected, the results may be wrong and the defaulters may escape from their liabilities. The detection window is smaller compared to other methods like urine test and hence it may not be effective in case of legal challenges where the onsite sample collection is not possible. The argument discusses about the faster response and non invasive nature, but the information regarding detection window is absent. If the saliva is collected out of the detection window, it will not be possible to get accurate results. Hence I would like to add the element of detection window and change the argument as saliva test is the most accurate and faster method for drug detection which eliminates the concerns over rights to privacy only when the sample is collected instantly. When the employees are tested on the spot, it becomes difficult for the employee to refuse the truth and escape from liability. It helps to eliminate the loopholes and helps to ensure justice for innocent employees. But the employer should be able to bear the costs involved in the saliva testing and provide the facilities to ensure faster sample collection and testing.
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