If are an employer holding a certificate that requires you to have a drug and alcohol testing program, then you should be familiar with the requirement that all of your employees performing safety-sensitive functions must be subject to random drug and alcohol testing. This means that the employees are included in a “pool” from which a certain percentage of employees are randomly selected to submit to drug and alcohol testing. Currently the annual rate for random selection is 10% for alcohol testing and 25% for drug testing.
Although it is usually pretty clear to employers which employees must be included in the random pool, sometimes the circumstances make that decision a little more difficult. And, unfortunately, the consequences of being wrong could be pretty significant. But with a proper understanding of who needs to be in the pool, when they need to be added and how you may be able to deal with unusual circumstances, you can increase your chances of correctly determining which employees do and do not need to be included in your random testing pool.
If you would like more information on this topic, please read my latest article: When Must An Employer Add An Employee To Its DOT Random Drug/Alcohol Testing Pool?.
