In this day and age, it can be a fine line between ensuring employees' safety while at work and invading their privacy by digging into what they do outside of work.
Rosie Ricca, human resources manager at A Tool Shed, and Robert Pedersen, president and CEO at A Tool Shed, lay out how their California-based company deals with substance testing.
Rental: Have positive drug tests among workers at your company increased in recent years? If so, when did the increase start?
Ricca: Yes, I have seen an increase in California since marijuana became legal for recreational use. Other substances did not seem to change in frequency. By 2020, it was definitely typical to see someone with THC still in their system. Our current commercial drivers have been consistent with having clean drug tests, however. A precedent has been set within the training of Class A drivers for sobriety.
We used to test all employees. Before hiring, one of the tests was marijuana, and if they had marijuana in their system, they wouldn't be hired. All that has changed now because it was an illegal drug at the time.
We make sure that they do the tests within 24 hours of the job offer, so they have to pass it contingent upon the job offer within a day because some of the harder drugs leave your body quicker. If someone has some illegal substance in their system when they're applying for a new job, it's probably not a good idea to have them work on heavy equipment.
The commercial drivers are tested randomly, and that is done through a third-party administrator, so we don't even know when our drivers will be tested.
Editor's Note: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that does not allow employers to discriminate against workers who smoke weed "off the job and away from the workplace." The new law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
The law prohibits employers from making hiring, firing or other employment decisions based on a drug test that finds "nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites" in someone's hair or urine, which do not indicate current impairment, but that someone consumed cannabis recently, up to weeks prior.
Rental: How should rental companies address positive drug and alcohol tests?
Ricca: It depends on the substance. THC could be in someone’s system from last month, and alcohol is about four to six hours. If you suspect someone is intoxicated while working, taking them to get tested and terminating if positive for anything except THC would be fair. I think if an employee is a driver, they should have random tests even if they are non-CDL, and their tests should be 100 percent clean. Regular tests I feel would be invasive. Random testing I feel would be the best way to administer tests.
Rental: How can rental companies help prevent employees from engaging in such activities on the job?
Ricca: We cannot control people outside of work. We offer a lot of tickets to events in the surrounding counties, and I think that certainly boosts morale and gives people some leisure time when they are off work. Supporting a work-life balance can help people be more content and hopefully draw habits away from substance abuse.
Rental: What kind of policies and resources can companies put in place to ensure employees follow safe work practices?
Ricca: Setting the expectation that safety procedures need to be followed and encouraging employees to communicate with their manager if they are feeling unable to do certain tasks safely that day. Perhaps they didn’t get any sleep, took an over-the-counter or prescribed drug that is inhibiting their abilities and should be on other duties.
They have to know their staff and their team, or at least the yard supervisor has to know them in order to see if there's something different going on with how they're working and how they're behaving. Our managers actually have gone through a class so they recognize the issues if somebody is under the influence of either drugs or alcohol or something along those lines. It was 120 minutes, and it's based on the Department of Transportation guidelines. It's a training that's done later on at the management level. We've done it about every five years or if a new manager comes on into that position.
Rewarding those who show active use of safety procedures is a good practice. For example, “I really appreciate how you always use the safety belt” and “Good idea, you’ll need those safety goggles,” etc. Support from a supervisor goes a long way.
Rental: What are the consequences of not addressing positive drug tests among employees?
Ricca: If it is positive at onboarding, you may want to consider whether this person is to be hired. However, this is a difficult decision in the current job market. If someone is positive for THC and not driving for us, then I may consider continuing to hire. A discussion with them about how you expect them to be present and prepared at work would be in order. If someone is a current employee, and you find they are intoxicated at work, the consequences are termination. Potentially they could hurt themselves or someone else just being around the equipment, so adding drugs and alcohol to the situation makes the probability of that even higher. It must be addressed.
Pedersen: Safety is a primary concern in our industry when you're working with equipment and other people around it and customers who aren't always familiar with the equipment. I can't stress safety enough, and we push it all the time. Drug awareness is just part of that program.
Rental: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Ricca: Managers must use their knowledge of equipment to observe how an employee is handling that equipment and use their expertise to gauge if that employee is behaving safely. We are not police officers or medical professionals or here to judge anyone. We should be able to know who we can trust with a potentially dangerous piece of equipment, just by observing them. Retraining or evaluation of their state of mind may be in order. The other piece is that unless the test is random; a urine five-panel test is easily manipulated, a physical exam at the time of onboarding with the drug test may be more telling than the drug screening alone.
Employers also need to be aware that laws are changing about giving employees access to recovery and to be rehabilitated if they have an addiction, so it will be treated more as a medical condition.
