There are groups such as the ACLU and Labor Unions that wish to stop random drug testing. The reason many employers give them randomly is because folks complained about being picked on due to ethnic origin and such. The costs of these tests are not cheap and yet, without some sort of policy in place an employer can be sued in the event an employee with drugs in their system has an accident, causes injury or death in the work place.
Should employers be allowed to drug test at all? Good question, and as an employer previously and running a franchising company I cannot tell you all hardship we had when President Bush had the economy humming and unemployment was at the lowest in our nation’s history besides WWII. Unemployment had dipped down to 4.2% and we could not find workers, everyone who wanted a job, had one, anyone who really didn’t want to work was left.
Many had issues, and drug usage, illegal drugs; Crystal Meth, Cocaine, etc. In the car washing industry we deal with mechanical devices, someone could easily get killed or injured, also we dealt with people’s belongings inside the cars, they often accused us if their cell phone slid under the seat that we stole it? So, the last thing you wanted was any employee that was doing drugs.
If an employer is not allowed to test due to new case law or legislation by congress, and yet is hung out to dry in a lawsuit when there is an accident, an employer cannot win. Thus an employer would be better off to hire fewer people to prevent the potential risks. Fewer people therefore will have jobs, so in the end this labor law issue will hurt employees not help them. And that is another point that must be considered by all who debate this topic.