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

themselves that employees can successfully pass a drug test before returning them to
safety-sensitive functions.
The majority of commenters support the change in the provision that allows a
covered employee to be hired prior to receiving a negative drug test result. These
comments indicated that the rule balances the employer’s personnel concerns with the
public safety interest by ensuring that the new covered employee is not permitted to
perform a safety-sensitive function for the first time until a negative drug test result is
received. However, one commenter stated that the public safety interest is better served
by prohibiting the hiring of a covered employee prior to receiving a drug test result.
Another comment indicated that FTA should adopt pre-employment provisions similar to
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Many commenters supported clarification of the rule regarding the time required
to elapse before an absent covered employee should take another pre-employment drug
test. A majority of rural and small urban employers are in favor of this rule because they
employ seasonal and temporary workers. A few comments indicated that there is no
basis to retest a covered employee after a 90-day absence. However, one employer
indicated that a pre-employment test should be administered after 90 days regardless of
whether the employee was in the employer’s random pool or not. Another commenter
indicated that pre-employment testing should be administered following consecutive
absences as short as 30 days.
FTA Response. FTA has reviewed the comments and will incorporate the NPRM
language into the final rule. FTA believes that deleting the phrase “hire” in this section
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