The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance, with the Office of General Counsel, has recently issued new guidance governing the collection process for substance abuse testing. Collections are sometimes considered a “weak link” in DOT drug testing programs because collectors are usually third parties, making it difficult for ...

ROBIN'S NOTE: I am happy to have Tommy Eden back again for a guest post. Tommy is from Constangy’s offices in Opelika, Alabama, and West Point, Georgia. He drafts DOT and state-specific drug testing policies for clients nationwide, and he serves on the Board of the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association.

Employers often want to know how much “smoke” there has to ...

An article by Lauren Weber and Rachel Feintzeig in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal caught a lot of attention -- it was about companies that have made the decision to do without a Human Resources function.

The idea drew some positive response on Twitter:

HR stifles innovation and bogs down businesses with inefficient policies and processes. http://t.co/5cGRIwHaxR

— Mike Brice ...

ROBIN’S NOTE: I am happy to feature as a guest blogger today Tommy Eden from Constangy’s offices in Opelika, Alabama, and West Point, Georgia. Tommy drafts DOT and state-specific drug testing policies for clients nationwide, and he serves on the Board of the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association.

Motor carriers have always taken drug abuse seriously, but they have ...

How much do you really know about employment medical examinations and the law? Let's find out!

1.      Assuming the results are not used in a way that violates the law, it is legal under the Americans with Disabilities Act to require a post-offer medical examination IF

A. The examination is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

B. The examination is narrowly tailored to ...

Whoa.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania held this week that U.S. Steel had the right under the Americans with Disabilities Act to conduct random alcohol tests on probationary employees at a coke plant, granting summary judgment to the company in a class action that had been filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The court found, in a "case of first impression,"* that the ...

My colleague and fellow blogger Jon Hyman had an excellent post this week about the settlement in the Dura Automotive case -- in which the company tested its employees for both illegal and legal drugs. And that wasn't all -- according to the press release of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, employees who tested positive for the designated legal drugs were required to state ...

Giddyap! It's been a short week, but we have tons to talk about in the labor and employment law world!

Thinking out loud about the impact of yesterday's DOMA decision on the Family and Medical Leave Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit* held yesterday that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. Section 3 provides that, for purposes of ...

As you all know, the Americans with Disabilities Act excludes "current users of illegal drugs" from protection. Meaning that an employer is free to take action against applicants or employees based on their current use of illegal drugs.

A question that has arisen a few times, and which I've managed to sidestep, has been this: What about current use of medical marijuana? Assuming the ...