The need for drug testing has never been more crucial…and employer liability only increases as society becomes more casual in the acceptance of drug abuse.

Legalization

Now we may not be as laid back as our friends up north who are handing out free drugs to everyone, but more and more places in the US are legalizing drugs. The CDC reported in June 2020 that 13% of adults, age 18 and older, started or increased their substance use as a result of the pandemic. This means that 33.6 million adults began using illicit drugs to cope with emotions related to COVID-19. ODMAP, an overdose reporting system, found that 62% of US counties experienced increased drug overdoses due to the pandemic.

To keep your workplace safe, productive, and drug-free, knowing all your drug testing options is essential. Common drug test types include urine, saliva, and hair testing.

What Should I Test For?

It is essential to know which drugs to screen for. Some commonly abused drugs are:

• Narcotics: includes heroin, fentanyl, morphine, opium, methadone
• Depressants: includes benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methaqualone, quaaludes
• Stimulants: includes cocaine, amphetamines, methylphenidate, methamphetamine
• Hallucinogens: common “club drugs” such as ecstasy, LSD, phencyclidine
• Cannabis: includes marijuana, THC, hashish
• Synthetics: includes spice, bath salts, anabolic steroids

Types Of Testing Available

It is also essential to review your company policy to ensure all your drug testing needs are being met. Blueline offers many different testing options. Our most popular tests are:

• 5 Panel: includes amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, opiates, and phencyclidine
• 7 Panel: consists of all 5-panel drugs, plus barbiturates and benzodiazepines
• 9 Panel: consists of all 7-panel drugs, plus barbiturates propoxyphene
• 10 Panel: includes all 9-panel drugs, plus methadone and methaqualone
• Popular Add-ons: tramadol, meperidine, fentanyl, spice, bath salts

Knowing which drugs to screen for can be tricky. Luckily, Blueline can help you navigate the right testing configuration for your organization and the proper drug testing policy catered specifically to your needs.

The post It’s Been a While Since Breaking Bad, so Here’s Your Refresher Course on Illegal Drugs appeared first on Blueline.

Louisiana Law Updates- June 2021

Louisiana enacted legislation to prohibit employment discrimination based on criminal history records. Employers now cannot request or consider an arrest record that did not result in a conviction, if the information was found during a background check. Employers are allowed to make assessments about an applicant’s criminal history if it has a direct relationship to the specific job duties. This assessment must consider:

• The nature and gravity of the offense
• The time that has elapsed since the offense
• The nature of the job

 New York Law Updates- July 2021

The Legal Enforcement Guidance on the Fair Chance Act and Employment Discrimination on the Basis of Criminal History was updated by the New York City Commission on Human Rights to consider changes made to the Fair Chance Act. The amendments to New York City’s Fair Chance Act were effective starting July 29, 2021. These amendments add protections for individuals who have unsealed violations and unsealed non-criminal offenses. It also expands protections to cover current employees who face pending criminal charges.

After a conditional offer of employment has been made, employers may conduct criminal background investigations. If reviewing the criminal record makes you reconsider the offer of employment, three steps must be completed before withdrawing the offer.

1. Evaluate the applicant under the Relevant Fair Chance Factors and share the evaluation with the applicant
2. Give the applicant a copy of the background check or any other documents used to determine their criminal record
3. Allow at least 5 business days for the applicant to respond

Staying on top of all these compliance changes can be time-consuming. Stay up to date with any compliance changes by using Blueline Services for all your background check needs.

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Why are Adverse Action Letters Important?

The FCRA wants to ensure everybody gets a full understanding of what and why an individual doesn’t qualify for something.  By providing an adverse action letter to an individual, you are showing them tangible evidence for your decision.

When denying an applicant for employment or a volunteer for a position or a tenant for housing, you are required to follow the adverse action process (which has various confusing steps). With Blueline’s platform, compliance is baked into every step of the process (platform access – record processing – data reporting – automated disclosures).

Blueline’s automated templates are EASY to use and totally FCRA COMPLIANT.  Spend your limited time onboarding your new employee/volunteer/tenant instead of babysitting the compliance process and regulatory risk.  Plus, Blueline has you covered on all other local, state, and federal guidelines, regulations, and best practices.

If you’re not using Blueline for your background checks and to automate adverse action letters, click here and see what you’ve been missing.

The post Automate Adverse Action Letters!!(and keep the FCRA off your back) appeared first on Blueline.

Workplace Injuries are Climbing

Manufacturing, construction, and transportation sectors tend to have higher rates of injury than most due to the industries’ nature. As a result of accidents happening at work, the employee and the employer face challenging times ahead.

The loss of salary, time, and increased healthcare expenses all contribute to the stress and worry of dealing with injuries. While several things can cause workplace accidents, drug and alcohol usage is a rising factor in on the job accidents.

Positive Tests on the Rise

An analysis from the Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index shows a significant increase in positive tests over the last five years. The number of people working under the influence of drugs and alcohol is on the rise as well. The safety-sensitive workforce is experiencing the highest levels of post-accident positivity rates as measured by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Drug Testing Programs

Drug testing programs can help an employer’s lower workplace accidents and injuries. Pre-employment drug testing is a great way to keep potential users from even applying for the job. Focusing on workplace safety initiatives within your company should include a drug testing policy. It will show prospective employees that you care about the health and well-being of all the employees.

There are several positive reasons to implement a testing program. The most important reason is the safety of your employees.  A safe workforce is a productive one.

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We published an article earlier this year all about the 2018 Drug Testing Index results that released findings showing workplace drug positivity rates are now at the highest rates we’ve seen in over a decade.

More than 14 million urine drug tests are analyzed in Quest’s Drug Testing Index to help provide industry specific insights on drug use. This latest analysis showed that within the U.S. workforce urine drug tests have seen year-over-year double-digit increases in workplace drug positivity within 6 out of 17 industry sectors.

Among these industries, the Retail Trade Industry has seen the highest overall positivity rate across the past four years.

Other industries that have seen year-over-year double-digit increases in drug positivity include:

-Transportation & Warehousing
-Other Service Industries
-Wholesale Trade
-Construction
-Administrative Support, Waste Management and Remediation Services

Barry Sample, PhD, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics spoke out about the findings, “Our [examination] of drug positivity data suggest drug use by the nation’s workforce is growing across a broad swath of industries. Of particular concern are sharp jumps in positivity rates seen in sectors like transportation and warehousing and construction that directly affect public safety. Staying vigilant and providing support for employees who test positive for drug use are key for employers seeking to maintain a safe, healthy workforce.”

If you have questions about how you can improve your drug testing program to help keep your workplace safe and accident free, give our drug testing department a call at 888-919-8378 or shoot us an email at mail@blueline-services.com.

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This is one of the most common questions or hesitations that we get from both employers and employees about drug testing.

Both sides of the issue are a little bit tricky, but the short answer is yes. Yes, an employer can require prescription medication disclosure, and, yes, employees must disclose medication if requested to do so by the employer. However, an employer can’t just require employees to disclose their prescriptions without having good reason to.

When is it appropriate to have a prescription medication disclosure in your workplace drug testing policy?

Unfortunately, there is no specific hard and fast rule for being allowed to mandate disclosure of prescription medications. The issue of privacy is very important in regards to protecting an employee’s rights. However, the issues of safety and liability beat out privacy in the case of safety-sensitive work. If there is a chance that the employee or others could be harmed due to impairment from a prescription drug, then employers are able to require prescription medication disclosure. As a general rule, employers must be able to prove that their request is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Referencing current and past court cases related to prescription drug policies. The following seem to be good indicators that prescription drug policies should be enforced:

1. The employee is engaged in safety sensitive duties.
2. The drug in question may impact the employee’s ability to engage in safety-sensitive duties adversely.
3. The disclosure is only related to on-the-job drug use.
4. The information required to be disclosed is treated by the employer with the utmost discretion in order to safeguard the employee’s privacy.

If you have questions about getting started with drug testing for your own organization, please give us a call at 888-919-8378 or email us at mail@blueline-services.com. We’re more than happy to help!

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Most volunteer organizations that screen consistently have said that their main motivating factor is their desire to ensure a safe and secure environment for their volunteers. Another large motivating factor is protecting their organization’s reputation as well. Having a “scandal” of any kind occur due to a lack of screening on an organization’s part can cause serious damage to an organization’s reputation and lead to financial fallout.

It’s also important to note that screening volunteers doesn’t mean that you are against hiring individuals with any kind of criminal history. Organizations who perform volunteer screening are interested in finding individuals who have been put on the sex offender registry or have committed violent crimes. From there, an organization can choose to find out more about this individual and whether they could be a potential risk for their organization. Another key thing to remember is that you should never just screen “some volunteers”, but screen everyone. Being selective about the screening process can open your organization up to risking your assets, reputation, and the safety of others. These consequences can also be detrimental to your ability to fundraise and qualify for grants.

As more volunteer organizations and nonprofits screen their volunteers, there is one thing that they are completely missing out on. Most volunteers are screened when they first apply and that’s it. Not every organization continues to re-run those background checks on a consistent basis to see if anything has changed. If the organization does decide to re-run the background checks on current volunteers, they often don’t do it for an entire year. A lot can happen in a year. A person could be convicted of a domestic violence incident or they could have a gotten DUI; the fact is it leaves an organization open to liability.

But there is a solution! Constant Monitoring. Constant Monitoring continues to ping an individual’s record for an entire year to see if there are any changes in the volunteer’s record. If there is a change, another full background check is run and reported out to the volunteer organization. After a year, as a part of the constant monitoring best practices, the organization will need to run another complete background. But constant monitoring allows an organization know that their volunteers are safe all year long and protect themselves from any potential liabilities. Best of all, this service costs less than 70 cents per month for each volunteer! And a couple cents to have piece of mind that that volunteer is still compliant and safe to work your constituents is a pretty sweet deal.

The post The Secret New Screening Tool Most Volunteer Organizations Have Never Heard About appeared first on Blueline.

Drug and alcohol testing policies are continually evolving and changing to reflect new state laws, federal regulations, or workplace attitudes. A regular review of your company’s current policy and procedures will help ensure that your company is on track to meet its goals and be legally compliant.

If your policy is no longer delivering value or helping you find employees that will execute your desired goals, it may be time to reevaluate.

Not sure if your policy could use updating?

Here are some indications that it could be time to update your policy:

Medical marijuana hasn’t been discussed

Although an employer is generally allowed to create their own drug testing policy including the right to a drug-free workplace, with changing laws surrounding both medical and recreational marijuana there may be some nuances you should be familiar with. Check out our article talking about testing for marijuana in the workplace today here and consult with your legal team about what guidelines you should follow.

No process is in place to monitor industry standards or changes

After spending so much time and consideration building your drug testing policy, you won’t need to review or update it for several years, right? Wrong! Most drug testing companies advise that you should review your policy at least once a year. Laws are ever-changing and this includes background screening and drug testing laws. Make sure that your policy is up-to-date with your specific state and industry’s standards.

You haven’t recently assessed your testing type or panel

We find that employers sometimes need to change their testing type or panel to best reflect changes within their company or improve their testing process. It’s a learning game and there isn’t necessarily a testing type or panel that is “best”; it depends on what options are most beneficial for your company.

Some examples of cause for change include:

-With the opioid epidemic, many employers have now updated their testing panel to include semi-synthetic opioids (hydrocodone, oxycodone, etc.) or other prescription medications.

-Some employers decide to change testing types to allow on-site testing which can help cut down on time spent for an employee to take a test.

-Other employers have had issues arise with certain drugs they hadn’t previously included in their testing panel which they then added. Or they’ve had a workplace accident occur due to drug use that has prompted them to add things to their testing program such as: reasonable suspicion training for their supervisors and post-accident testing.

At the beginning of this new year we would advise you to take some time reviewing your company’s current drug testing policy. If you have any questions about how adding or changing your current services could potentially benefit your company, please give us a call at the number above or reach out to our support team at mail@blueline-services.com.

The post Is It Time To Update Your Drug Testing Policy? appeared first on Blueline.

These changes include:

1. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has increased its annual random drug testing rate from 25% to 50%. Their alcohol testing rate will remain at 10% for 2019.

-The FTA is required to raise their drug testing rate if the reported positive rate is 1% or greater. The agency reported an increase to 1.06% reported drug testing positives in 2017.

2. The Coast Guard increased their random drug testing rate to 50%.

3. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) random testing rates will remain unchanged for 2019.

-FAA: is 25% for drug and 10% for alcohol testing

-PHMSA: 50% for drug testing

4. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will remain unchanged with random drug testing rates of 25% and a 10% rate for alcohol testing.

5. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has also stayed the same.

-Covered Service rates: 25% for drug testing and 10% for alcohol

-Maintenance of Way: 50% for drug testing and 25% for alcohol

Visit transportation.gov to see the DOT’s complete chart of 2019’s annual drug and alcohol testing rates.

The post Updated Random Testing Rates For 2019 appeared first on Blueline.