Implementation Guidelines - Federal Transit Administration - U.S. ...

Employees are not to be given any advance
notice.
When developing a random testing
program, you should establish a standard
procedure and practice for notifying
employees who have been selected. In
scheduling tests, be careful not to provide
any indication of when the testing will
occur.
Every effort should be made to provide
the maximum privacy possible. Employees
should be individually and discretely
notified to report to the collection site.
Assure those employees selected for testing
that this is a routine random test. They
should not feel that they have been singled
out for testing for reasonable suspicion or
for some other unstated reason. Flowcharts
detailing the random testing process may be
found at the end of this chapter.
The FTA Random Drug Testing Manual,
published in September 1991, describes the
random selection process in detail. Consult
this publication when choosing an approach
to random testing, deciding when to test, and
developing the selection and notification
procedures.
Section 5. RETURN-TO-DUTY
TESTING
Before any employee is allowed to
return-to-duty to perform a safety-sensitive
function following a verified positive drug
test result, an alcohol result of 0.04 or
greater, a refusal to submit to a test, or any
other activity that violates the regulations,
that employee must first be evaluated by a
SAP and pass a return-to-duty test (§655.46,
§40.285).
This test and the SAP’s evaluation of an
individual’s return-to-duty status provides
some degree of assurance to the employer
that the individual is presently free of
alcohol and/or any prohibited drugs and is
able to return to work without undue
concern about continued substance abuse
and public safety.
Recommendation
Random Testing
One of the most sensitive types of testing is
random testing. Indeed, if your system is
challenged on a random test, you may be
required to demonstrate that you are properly
applying a valid random selection
methodology.
Small transit systems may be best served by
contracting out the random selection process.
Part of the responsibility that can be contracted
out involves maintaining the random test pool
by using unique identification numbers from
each member system to update the pool
membership. Because employees of all systems
are pooled together, the pool is large enough
that the predictability of the test is lessened.
Likewise, since no manager at any of the transit
systems is involved in the selection process (all
selections are done in a controlled access area
of the consortium management company), no
employee need fear that he or she has been
unfairly singled out for testing.
Many alcohol or drug users are
“polyusers;” that is, they use both alcohol
and drugs. Therefore, the DOT regulations
allow the employer to administer return-toduty
tests for both drugs and alcohol, even
though the original infraction was due to
alcohol or drugs only.
Before a return-to-duty test is performed,
the employee must be evaluated by a SAP to
determine if the employee has successfully
followed all the recommendations for action
by the SAP, including participation in any
rehabilitation program. The SAP must
recommend an education or treatment
program in response to every referral.
Chapter 6. Types of Testing 6-18 August 2002