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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    2

    Default Can I Safely Ask to Be Taken Off of Drug Screening

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Florida

    I work at a FAA certified jet engine repair facility. As such the Federal Department of Transportation has strict rules for employees is a "sensitive" job. The most prevelant example of sensitive would be the mechanics.

    I was initially hired for non maintenance work, general shop labor. I never touched any part of the engines. I did paperwork and maintained the stock room. Also i was not required to be put on the drug screening program.

    A couple of months in they decided to give me some OJT for an in house job that required me to be responsible for an element of maintenaince on the actual engines. Because of this i was required to be put on the drug screening program which i gladly agreed to. I passed my initial test and even passed a random screening a few months after that.

    For the last 5 months i have not been doing the job that required me to be on the screening program. in fact they decided to make me a full time stock room employee. They explicitly told me not to do that job, that it was the mechanics responsibility to do any work for an engine. I work under my boss, the director of the stockroom operation who is not on the screening program. however i still am even though my job requirements have changed.

    I would like to be removed from the program. I was happy to comply when they needed me to but it is unnecessary right now. I feel like a part of my personal privacy is being unnecessarily infringed on. However I understand that some employers would consider this a suspicious request. Can i safely ask to be taken off of the program without worrying for my job? Do they have to take me off of the program if i ask and my job requirements no longer necessitate it (proof of this is seen in the fact that my superior who does the same job as me is not on the program)?

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
    Posts
    16,307

    Default Re: Can I Safely Ask to Be Taken Off of Drug Screening

    Can i safely ask to be taken off of the program without worrying for my job?
    There's really no way we can answer that. We're not your employer, we don't know what sort of bells such a request would ring, or what company policy has to say about the program.

    In other words, we can't guarantee that asking to be taken off the screening program won't get you terminated. All we can say is that you need to discuss it with your superiors.

    Do they have to take me off of the program if i ask and my job requirements no longer necessitate it (proof of this is seen in the fact that my superior who does the same job as me is not on the program)?
    Nope. If your employer decides it's a job requirement, then it's a job requirement, and your choices are comply or find other employment.

    Harsh, to be sure, but that's the way at-will employment works.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Can I Safely Ask to Be Taken Off of Drug Screening

    Quote Quoting LawResearcherMissy
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    Nope. If your employer decides it's a job requirement, then it's a job requirement, and your choices are comply or find other employment.
    Harsh, to be sure, but that's the way at-will employment works.
    Interesting I thought that if they are screening me and not someone who does the same or even more sensitive job as me that would be seen as a form of discrimination.

    Thank you for the reply btw i appreciate the help. I will read over the screening program literature i have and see what I can come up with

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Can I Safely Ask to Be Taken Off of Drug Screening

    Not all discrimination is illegal. In fact, most discrimination is quite legal.

    You discriminate when you pick the green shirt instead of the blue one; when you order steak instead of chicken; when you pick mysteries instead of historical fiction at the library. Having "discriminating tastes" is considered complimentary.

    It is only illegal discrimination when it is based on a characteristic protected by law. The law does not say that all employees have to be treated exactly the same; only that any differences in treatment cannot be based in one's race, religion, national origin etc.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: Can I Safely Ask to Be Taken Off of Drug Screening

    my suggestion:

    Get off the drugs and the surprise drops are not a problem. I hate the thought of losing rights just as much as the next guy but when faced with losing what I thought was a right and then realizing it isn't, I simply make sure whatever it is is complied with. Your only other options are to quit the job or risk dropping dirty.

    If you do not do drugs, just read the second sentence of the prior paragraph.

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