Premium Essay

The Case for and Against Drug Testing

In:

Submitted By parmistead
Words 982
Pages 4
The dilemma of whether or not to have a drug-testing policy in corporate America is a colossal subject. Alcohol and drug abuse are considered to be amongst the most common health hazards in the workplace. Drug use in the workplace is an increased liability to employers and can cost companies millions of dollars.
In this case study, a company named Castulon Corporation, is faced with a dilemma of whether or not to implement a drug-testing policy. The cause for this dilemma is the fact that upper management has been notified of two separate incidents in the past two months of possible drug abuse (Ivancevich, 2010). In this case study, I believe that the company should establish a drug-testing program. I believe that every company or business should have a drug-testing policy. There are many pros and cons to utilizing a drug-testing program but the biggest positive out ways everything which is safety. This is especially true for this case study as the company is in the manufacturing industry so they are at a higher risk for injury and loss of life (Ivancevich, 2010). A drug-testing policy would start with screening any newly hired employees. This would be a pre-condition of employment. The individual would have to pass an initial drug test. This pre-employment drug testing gives the employer a greater vote of confidence that they are hiring an individual that does not have a drug problem. To implement the drug-testing policy, the company must first provide the employee with a copy of the policy. The policy will provide the purpose, scope and terms and agreements of the policy. The policy would include a disciplinary section to deal with employees who test positive for drug use. An example of some disciplinary procedures would be: 1) If employee tested positive, first notify the supervisor and employee of the results; 2) notify the employee that a meeting will

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Application Case 16.1 the Case for and Against Drug Testing

...not to have a drug-testing policy in corporate America is a major undertaking. Alcohol and drug abuse are considered to be amongst the most common and dangerous health hazards in the workplace. Drug use in the workplace is an increased liability to employers and can cost companies millions of dollars in legal expenses and compliance standards. In this case study, Castulon Corporation, is faced with a dilemma of whether or not to implement a drug-testing policy. The cause for this dilemma is the fact that upper management has been notified of two separate incidents in the past two months of possible drug abuse (Ivancevich p. 532). In this case study, it would seem logical that Castulon Coporation should establish a drug-testing program. Where it is legal to do so nearly every company or business should have a drug-testing policy. The policy does not have to be mandatory for all situations, but should at least be a requirement after a significant mistake or accident. There are many pros and cons to utilizing a drug-testing program but the biggest positive out ways everything which is safety. This is especially true for this case study as the company is in the manufacturing industry so they are at a higher risk for injury and loss of life (Ivancevich p. 533). A drug-testing policy would start with screening any newly hired employees. This would be a pre-condition of employment. The individual would have to pass an initial drug test. This pre-employment drug testing gives the employer...

Words: 1028 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Employment Law Case Study 6

...Case
Analysis
3
 BA370
Employment
Law
 Robert
Harvey
 Lanier v. City of Woodburn In the case of Lanier v. City of Woodburn it is discussed if passing a preemployment drug test is required for the conditional of job offer as being constitutional. This case also discusses that a government employer is unable to demonstrate that it had a special need to drug-test a job candidate. Also whether or not drug testing should be used a determining factor in the hiring decision of a potential employee within the organization. Another important aspect to look at in the discussion of drug testing is whether or not if the job candidate can refuse drug testing without facing adverse employment consequences. There are many types of employment tests that many employers base their hiring and promotion decisions on. Employment tests are also used by employers within an organization to screen for fitness of the individual and whether or not they would be able to complete the job that would be required of them. Some of the these tests that completed by employers are designed to identify disqualifying characteristics such as illegal drug use, lack of truthfulness, intelligence, psychological, skill, and physical in order to complete any or all of the jobs that may be required of the employees in order to work for a particular organization. Not only is dug testing looked at in this case but also whether or not the Fourth Amendment is violated on the basis of unreasonable search and seizure that...

Words: 3769 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Why Is Animal Testing Wrong

...Is testing drugs on animals wrong? The ethical issue of animal testing is an area that has very divided opinions on whether is right or not. However some people are not sure about the issue and may agree with it in some circumstances, but not in other ones. Support for animal testing: The major and general argument for testing on animals is hat as humans we are more important/ superior in turn making are action ok. As long as the testing will lead to an advancement which may save lives the suffering of the animals is completely justified. Many people are completely against the idea of cosmetics being tested on animals however support the testing of medicine on animals. Another reason why people support animal testing is that it helps prevent...

Words: 602 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Equal Employment Opportunity and Employee Rights

... Equal Employment Opportunity and Employee Right Over the course of history in the United States there have been many laws put in place to protect employees and employers. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 are two such acts signed into law. Each of the laws protects workers from termination for causes outlined in the acts. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. Drug testing has become popular in many businesses in today’s society.  This upsets many employees because they think that what they do on their own time does not affect what they do at work.   The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was put into place to make it easier for American’s that have disabilities to navigate. There are five different categories of this Act. The first category is employment. This law prohibits employers from discriminating due to their limited abilities. It requires employers to provide easier accessibility for work-sites and offices. Another category of this act is public service. This act prohibits state and local...

Words: 1862 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Ethics

...Rick Gombotz (1566415) Accounting 529A Spring Quarter 2016 Eli Lilly Midterm Introduction Eli Lilly & Company is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world that produces a variety of drugs and supplements. The pharmaceutical industry is commonly in a negative light because it deals with making expensive products that are involved in preventing death or prolonging a life. Many of these companies get scrutinized because ethical decisions are involved relating to the testing of getting a drug approved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require that a drug be tested on healthy humans to make sure it is safe for use. This creates a problem though because a reasonable individual will not take an unapproved drug unless they are substantially compensated. To combat this issue, pharmaceutical companies started testing unapproved drugs on homeless people in exchange for money and other benefits. Eli Lilly started to use this approach in the 1980s and discovered that homeless male alcoholics desperate for money would take unapproved drugs for payments of up to $4,500 a month, a warm bed, food, and good medical care. To make sure that these individuals are not exploited, the FDA requires that individuals participating in these tests give their “informed consent” and make a “truly voluntary and uncoerced decision.” (P. No. 73). This creates an ethical issue because people question whether being broke, homeless, and an alcoholic can have an effect on making...

Words: 2536 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Drug Testing for Welfare

...Cons Of Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients Norman Zeitunian BCOM/275 Business Communication October 30, 2012 Todd Keller Cons Of Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients There are many states that have attempted to introduce or have laws on their books for drug testing when individuals who are applying for state benefits. Some of the states are Kentucky, Florida, Virginia and Washington. The overall purpose of this testing is to better prepare individuals for employment purposes. Although that is a good sounding intention, there are many aspects that will be flawed and not viable. The most powerful argument against drug testing for welfare benefits stems from the constitutional standpoint. Organizations such as the ACLU have argued that the Fourth Amendment protects citizens from being searched without probable cause ( Bowler 2012). This issue is the main stopping point for creating this program in states’ is that there are many legal issues and will be challenges in the court systems. This leads to the costs related to dealing with the legal ramifications and potential lawsuits that are filed against states agencies that impose drug testing. Another point that was stated in the same letter was that mandatory drug testing was an "ineffective" and "fiscally irresponsible" way to deal with drug abuse. Instead of drug tests, which cost an average of $42 each not including the costs of running the program, the money would be better spent on training government workers...

Words: 582 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Phizer Case Study

...tend to turn the blind eye there is tons of violations in pharmaceutical industry that money continues to cover up. This will lead us into a case where, Pfizer failed to keep its commitment to corporate social responsibility as one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies, the choice they made to choose to bear unethical behavior in 1996. “Given the risks and costs of developing a new drug, pharmaceutical companies will jump at oppor- tunities to reduce them, and Pfizer thought it saw one” (Hill, pg 139, 2011). The case in point is the event that Pfizer gave its novel antibiotic “Trovan” to allegedly sick children without the consent of the parents when there was a serious outbreak of meningitis in Kano Nigeria. Pfizer’s choose the risk route and chose to ignore the children’s personal safety in testing. For personal gain and envious reason, this is was a violation of commercial ethics. It is claimed that Pfizer outbreak in Nigeria in urgent need of medical treatment cases on others' insecurity, regardless of the consequences to test new drugs, the loss of basic medical ethics, the law violations the United Nations the relevant provisions of the Convention on Human Rights (Xia, 2006). Therefore, the essay discusses the unethical behavior of Pfizer’s drug testing in Nigeria. Pfizer should not undergo drug testing of Trovan in Nigeria because: 1) the motives and ethics of the...

Words: 1897 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Employment Law Chart

...Court Case Influential to Establishment of Law Importance of Law Workplace Application Civil Rights Act of 1964 “Prohibits discrimination in all employment decisions on basis of race, religion, ethnicity, sex, and national origin.” (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst 2013). In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits not only intentional job discrimination, but also employer practices that have a discriminatory effect on minorities and women. The Court held that tests and other employment practices that disproportionately screened out African American applicants for jobs at the Duke Power Company were prohibited when the tests were not shown to be job-related This law is important because it gives every person applying for a job equal rights. An employee cannot be discriminated against for being Catholic. An employee has the right to choose their religion and to not be discriminated against. Equal Employment Opportunity Act The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 is the act which gives the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) authority to sue in federal courts when it finds reasonable cause to believe that there has been employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In the case of public employment, the EEOC refers the matter to the United States Attorney General to bring the lawsuit. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973). In that case, the...

Words: 1415 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Drug Test

...Testing students for drugs In this section of the reading it states that drug testing in schools is valid and not violating the fourth amendment. I would say that I do agree with them because they are trying to keep drugs out of school. In my opinion this does not violate the fourth amendment because the children are choosing to be in sports even though they know there will be drug testing. I would say this is more of a search than a seizer. The school does have their rights to ask for a drug test for students who want to participate in sports. School have a rule that if you are participating in sports than you cannot be on drugs. They would not be drug tested against their will which means that it is not an illegal search. I have never heard of a middle school drug testing athletes and I feel that should not be done. Middle school children are too young to be thought of as children on drugs. If they are being drug tested then they are being introduced to the thought that drugs are out there and can be done. I think it is very inappropriate to drug test a middle school student. There should be an age limit on drug testing students. Squeezing luggage on a bus I am going to have to disagree with this section of the reading. In this section of the reading an officer squeezed a passengers bag when he passed by. He felt a brick like substance and asked to check the bag. The man said yes it was okay to check the bag. At that time the officer found drugs in his bag. In court...

Words: 576 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Drug Testing for Welfare

...Healey, Eric Government 2305 Drug Testing The idea of drug testing for recipients of Public Assistance is a very controversial topic. I will discuss both the advantages and dis advantages of drug testing and how it affects the people of the United States as a whole. I believe in a system that provides for the welfare of others, food, clothing, and shelter for those that are in need, especially when children are concerned. As Americans it is important that we take care of our own citizens and help provide for them, but at what cost? Most Americans realize there is waste, fraud and abuse in almost every Government program and that includes the public assistance program. It is hoped that the use of drug testing for the receipt of Public Assistance will deter the use of drugs and weed out those that are using drugs from the system saving the taxpayer money. There is no question that there are many that have no problem staying at home and living off the sweat of another person’s labor. In many cases the recipients of Public Assistance use their money to purchase steak, lobster and many other expensive food items someone working a 9-5 job can never afford. It is believed by many that it is not fair to the tax payer to provide financial assistance to a recipient that will use that assistance to purchase drugs. Especially when those providing the assistance, i.e. the hard working tax payer, must, in most cases, undergo a drug test in order to continue to work at their...

Words: 756 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Return of Reagan

...The return of Reagan's 'welfare queen' New laws to make welfare claimants pay for drug tests cruelly exploit the resentments of struggling middle-class Americans Florida Governor Rick Scott is poised to fulfill a "top priority" campaign pledge and sign legislation requiring the state's approximately 58,000 welfare recipients to pay for their own random drug tests. The fiscal hawk and governor was once the head of Columbia/HCA, which perpetrated the biggest Medicare fraud in US history, and he opposed the creation of a database to track heavy prescription narcotics like Oxycontin because it would be an "invasion of privacy". This in Florida, our nation's undisputed capital of illegal prescription drugs, where dope is slung out of strip mall "pill mills". But I digress – and it's only the second paragraph. "If you go apply for a job today, you are generally going to be drug-tested," Governor Scott told Central Florida News 13 in October 2010. "The people that are working are paying the taxes for people on welfare. Shouldn't the welfare people be held to the same standard?" Thirty states took up bills to mandate drug testing for "the welfare people" during the 2011 legislative session, which is now in most states drawing to a merciful close: legislators were otherwise busy restricting abortion, worker and immigrant rights, while liberalising the right to bear arms on college campuses and destroy the environment; Florida and Texas have passed legislation making it harder for...

Words: 1241 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Eeo Testing

...Running head: EMPLOYEE TESTING LAWS EMPLOYEE TESTING LAWS & PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES: ARE THEY ENSURING TRANSPARENT ACCOUNTABILITY OF AN EXECUTIVE LEADER’S MENTAL & BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCY? EMPLOYEE TESTING LAWS   2 Abstract This paper serves two roles. Firstly, the work attempts to synthesize the efforts of fellow classmates as presented in our mutual discovery and examination of Equal Employment Opportunity law during a traditional graduate level “long semester”. This synthesis piece will primarily consider the focus areas that surround employee testing (drug testing, as well as pen and paper evaluations). Secondly, this paper presents application dilemmas for the practitioner with regard to the language of the current legislation. The paper argues that the current collection of employee testing legislation, while offering necessary civil protections, would benefit from targeted amendments. These amendments would include language that would exempt specific employees of certain protections that are currently offered to all employees under existing EEO law. The paper argues that existing laws do not ensure the sound mental capacity and well being of leaders charged with protecting the collective interests of many stakeholders. These “specific employees” would primarily include executive leadership roles within publicly traded companies or those employees that currently fall under any “SOX/Dodd-Frank” compliance regulations. The “certain protections” that this...

Words: 2010 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Drug Abuse

...Athlete Drug Abuse If I had to start a campaign on a high school campus or a college campus for student athletes it would be to ban illegal drug usage and to have mandatory drug testing. I think it would improve the integrality of sports and the behavioral aspect of the athletic programs. A lot of drug usage comes from students not being focused and strong minded. Student athletes get off onto the wrong path with the wrong crowd once they are influenced by illegal drug abuse. I strongly feel that drug testing has a positive impact on a team. It keeps the team disciplined, builds a great athletic program, and makes coaches want to enforce the importance of staying drug free even more. Athletic programs are not just successful by hard work in practices, making the required grades, but mostly by being drug free. When I stress the importance of being drug free I mean by using marijuana. In this case marijuana is a popular drug for most athletes to use, and also get caught with using. There also is a steroid that is an illegal drug that a lot of athletes use to be stronger, faster, and quicker. Steroids can be used by any athlete and you would never know, but once they were tested for it, if it was found they would have severe consequences as far as suspension, kicked out of school, and cost the team a disadvantage. Therefore, that’s why coaches enforce the importance of illegal drug usage. Drug testing makes players think twice about when they chose to do drugs or try...

Words: 1020 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Random Stuff

...Random Drug Testing: Waste of Time Her grades fell. She was always tired. She never seemed to be able to focus at school. Classes she used to be interested in became utterly mundane. Friends she used to care about became replaceable. She stopped spending time with her family. She sat on the bench at every soccer game instead of becoming the star player her coaches thought she could. This is what addiction to drugs can do to a young person’s life. Addiction can take away everything that once made that young person happy. The only thing that matters anymore is the drug, getting high, and getting higher. It is a horrible and tragic thing that destroys so many young lives. Some people think that in order to prevent these situations, the best solution is random drug testing. But this is not a reasonable solution whatsoever. Many more students are using and selling drugs as they roam around the campus, but will never be “caught” with such a fickle and illusive process. Random student drug testing is not a plausible solution for the drug problem in public schools; it is unreliable and it infringes on the lives of those students involved. Those who support random drug testing argue that the growing trend of drug testing a small population of students in a school is effective at attacking the drug abuse problem, because fewer students will use when there is an obvious consequence (Drug Testing in School Activities 2). They b... ... middle of paper ... ...o Hear Arguments...

Words: 322 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Animal Testing

...diseases and death by powerful medical drugs and treatments . This incredible gift of medicine would not be possible without animal testing . Despite these overwhelming benefits , however , some individuals are calling for animal testing to be banned because of alleged cruelty. Those who are against the use of animal testing argue that it is inhumane to use animals in save human’s existence. However I completely disagree with such approach. It would be much more inhumane to test new drugs or some other medical elements on children or adults because all people are like big family and therefore people should not put their lives under risk. The second reason why I am in favour of animal testing is that the result of medical experiments are not often applicable to humans .this maybe partly true as some drugs have had to be withdrawn despite being tested on men , therefore as we simply do not have alternative methods of testing , because computer models are not so advanced enough and testing on plants is much less applicable to humans than test on animals such as monkeys . Unless we have a better system we have to use animal testing to provide human’s safety when scientist using drugs A further point often raised against animal testing is that it is cruel . some of the test certainly seem painful , but the great majority of people on this planet eat meat or wear leather without any guilt . SO in this case where is their sympathy for animals? ...

Words: 331 - Pages: 2