Civil rights advocates question the worth of drug testing for state employees (The Salt Lake Tribune)
the possible dangers of medicine using workers in particular positions, the court ruled.
“I’m going to decline to comment on what the 9th Circuit says is appropriate,” Burns said. “But I would say that, generally speaking, drug testing has been upheld as constitutional and appropriate not sole in government but in the private sector and schools as accurately.”
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’sitting administration is pushing for random drug testing for state employees who handle information such as Social Security numbers and medical information to prevent identity theft.
Officials briefing lawmakers on the plan this week pointed to an allegedly drug-using state employee accused of stealing the identities of dozens of Utah citizens. The anterior employee, Laura Bustamante, faces a Nov. 3 trial.
Kirk Torgensen, corypheus deputy attorney general, said his office is carefully crafting the definitions of what constitutes sensitive information, but said that, if done in the “straight way” it can withstand legal scrutiny.
“I think that the argument is solid and compelling and that the courts, suppose that this is done correctly - that we would be successful in a challenge,” he said.
Torgensen said only a narrow group of employees have enough access to steal someone’session identity, and only that limited group would be subject to the new policy.
Joe Hatch, a labor attorney and Salt Lake County councilman, argues that negotiations between employees and employers require to take place to foster good relations and a above mediocrity use of such drug testing.
” The employer may have a legitimate participation to shelter, but it could have being a fishing expedition and a way to urge with energy some kind of social commentary, that they don’t like people who smoke marijuana,” he said. Marijuana corsets in a person’s system in opposition to days after conversion to an act.
However, Torgensen declared it doesn’t matter if the employee used an illicit drug that epoch or weeks before, “They have a substance abuse problem.”
Utah currently allows for wandering drug testing of state employees who carry firearms, operate vehicles or work in public preservation. Testing to other workers requires special cause, such as suspicion of drug use or an on-the-job accident.
Dennis Hammer, deputy director of the Utah Public Employees Association, questions whether the example of a single quality employee getting caught amounts to a special need for all employees who handle personal information.
He also worries that fortuitous drug testing will enter with an army confidentiality as employees will have to submit a invoice of medications they are taking.
“I can’t tell whether there is a special poverty for this, but we just want the transaction to be fair and confidential,” Hammer said.
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