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EMPLOYERS
FIND VALUE
IN
EMPLOYEES WHO USE DRUGS.
Drug-Free Workplace: Eastern Industries, Inc.
“When a drug-free workplace policy includes only
drug testing, you run the risk of losing valuable
employees. By offering rehabilitation services in
conjunction with drug testing, we’ve been able to keep
good employees while offering them a chance to revisit
their bad choices.”
—Glenn A. Fritzinger
Manager of Human Resources
Eastern Industries, Inc.
Eastern Industries, Inc. has provided a wide array of
construction products and services for more than 60 years.
Located in Pennsylvania, the company’s product lines
include stone, hot mix asphalt, building supplies and
ready-mix concrete. Eastern also manages two construction
divisions and employs about 650 people during peak season.
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Pre-employment drug
screening which excludes employees
based on chemical substances detecting in urine or hair samples has never
proven to deter drug usage. It is a practice that insurance
companies anticipate will reduce an employee's need for healthcare and
thus enable lower premiums and larger profits for the insurance
industry. It hasn't turned out that way. Large insurance
companies have learned that those who self-medicate tend to use their
benefits less. Indeed, the highest percentage of insurance goes to
families with more than one child. Thus, if insurance companies
really wanted to reduce payments, they would simply tabulate the number of
children in a family and provide a cutoff. That's not an unreasonable
approach. In fact, it is predicated that one day, a family will not
be allowed to have more than three children. This will probably be
enforced by birth control and abortion. |
Worked to Death
Kyle had enjoyed a great
reputation in the electronics engineering industry. By the time he was 28,
he was being sought out by companies and turned many offers down.
However, one company was aggressive
enough in their pursuit to make a job offer contingent upon urinalysis
testing. Quest diagnostics performed the study under the direction
of MROs from ChoicePoint. When the test came back positive, Kyle
agreed to the confirmatory test using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectometry.
The result was clear to the MRO that Kyle tested positive for |
methamphetamine
use. The hiring company became involved in disputing the results --
this is now considered illegal. To save his reputation, the hiring manager
told a few industry leaders what had happened and Kyle was not only
without a job, but he was boycotted throughout the industry. Kyle
hired an attorney who was not well prepared to handle the case. Four
months later, on the night before Christmas, Kyle bought a gun and shot
himself to death in the basement of his home, leaving behind a wife of
five years, a three-year old son, and a one-year old daughter.
Months after his death, it was learned that Kyle had been using a Vick's
inhaler which can produce a false positive in the initial test and the MRO
failed to look at the confirmatory test. The MRO later confessed
that he hadn't even received the confirmatory test but made the decision
based on a conversation he had with Kyle who "seemed high strung...
and even threatening." |
Kyle's case is not
uncommon. There have been thousands of other false positives that
have destroyed lives and careers. There are even many more where
positive drug testing resulted in the loss of a productive worker.
The most harmful aspect of drug testing is
that it has resulted in corporations settling for the "B"
candidate instead of the "A" candidate. The long-term
effects of this are now clearly visible with the stunted growth of
American companies and a weak economy. The exclusion of drug users
has tainted the term diversity, which is not true diversity, but a
superficial form of it that is just another term that simply generates a
new brand of discrimination. |