Simply, does my employer (or potential employer) have to disclose to me the results of a drug test they require me to provide a sample for?
It seems to me that that information is confidential, but it is also mine, so I should have access to it, even if they are the ones who pay for it. But, in many years of submitting samples for drug testing, I have never seen the results.
Yes if you ask they have to show you.
An employer wouldn’t have you submit to a DT unless they plan on giving you the job (its your job to lose at this point). It costs the employer at least $100/test so if you took a DT and didnt get the job you failed.
I’m not sure why your employer would have to disclose it unless it resulted in your being disciplined in some way because of the results. If you take the drug test and don’t hear anything back that means you passed. Why would you have the right to see the results of your passing the test?
The employer should have no qualms about showing the results of a drug test to any employee or candidate.
If you failed and are being dismissed…“here you go, you had THC in your test sample. That’s why you are being dismissed.”
If you passed…“here you go, no positives for any items tested for.”
I would think this is the case for any company going through the expense of having you tested, the results should be black and white.
Pass - you are hired or keep your job
Fail - you are not hired or disciplined/fired
To put people’s mind at ease, I have no tests pending and, even if I did, I wouldn’t have any problem passing. I just wonder how true the above is.
First, the cost of testing is not very high. It is not uncommon that the people who demand such testing take place are separate from the people who are responsible for having the testing done. For large corporations, the cost of testing is part of the budget and once it is approved, nobody (except perhaps the purchasing agents who negotiate with the testing labs) gives the cost a second thought.
Second, while I suspect that if you pass, you keep your job, I know for a fact that you can fail and nothing be said. While management theory says that employees are a fungible resource, management reality is that very often, they are not. While an employer who has an employee that had a habit of showing up for work drunk, stoned, or tripping isn’t likely to want to keep that person, if their top foreman of their most productive department should come up positive for pot after a 4-day plant shutdown, they may just forget about it. If the employees had records of their results, that could cause problems.
Here is some info from OSHA. I’m getting tired, not going to try to interpret it right now, but it brings up the point that the employer may not be responsible for providing the results of required drug testing because they aren’t required to keep such records. That doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to get those results from the lab somehow, and I think you are entitled to see any such results. However, the lab itself usually will not disclose test results directly to the subject and require the results to be conveyed by a medical provider.
I still don’t see a scenario where a positive (failed) drug test would not be known by the employee. Even if the HR person doesn’t want to fire the employee, at minimum I would expect the employee to receive a warning.
Consider the different testing reasons:
Onboarding Screen - This is cut and dry, no pass means no job.
Random screening - My experience here was with the US Military, if the first offense is not immediate dismissal, there should be some defined penalty structure based on 1st, 2nd, 3rd offense.
Suspicion/cause - The company is actively suspecting you, I can’t see any reason they would hide the results.
So the only situation where you may not know the result would be a random screening where a friendly HR person hid the results, and you have to assume your HR pal would let you know he or she did you a solid in that case.
Like excavating (for a mind) says below, peace of mind would be nice. I’ve seen situations where the employee never finds out the results (for random tests, not hiring situations). Sure, if you don’t get disciplined or fired, you may assume you passed. How long do you wait until you relax though? 1 week? 1 month? Would be nice to get a note that the results are in and you’re OK, even if you don’t get specific numeric results.
I think one reason specific test info isn’t given out proactively is that the detailed results can reveal what specific drugs (or drug classes) are being tested. Some employers only test for a limited subset of possible drugs.
Last one I took, the results were instantaneous. The admin had me hold onto the cup and tear off the reveal strip, I passed no fail. kinda surprised it didn’t pick up THC - lol, i didn’t prep for anything just abstained for a few days and captured the last of the stream…
don’t tell mom
A lot of places don’t test for THC anymore. The last time I took a test was thirteen years ago and it was as you described. They had a cheapie test that I passed but they told me that it had a fair amount of false positives and not to worry if I failed. All fails got sent to a lab for a more expensive test.
Well, since no else has yet:
Username/OP hed combo.
I still work for that same employer. We stopped testing for cannabis five years ago at least. As soon is it went legal here in California, I started openly talking about how I smoke weed. Old habits die hard and people were nervous at first but now all of the stoners have no fear about it. If the drunks can talk about getting wasted on the weekend or even about their wine tasting trips, I can sure as hell talk about my oil pen. Anyone who doesn’t like it can fuck off.