Screening Employees for Drug Use

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Do you want to know if your employees are using drugs? Skip the urine tests. Try testing your offices for the presence of drugs. Kris Maher of the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Global Detection & Reporting Inc. markets a drug-wipe test that's less costly than a urine test, which run about $35 per employee, and can test for five drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. A single $10 kit offers a general assessment of drug use by employees and can be used to test multiple work spaces. The test is proving to be an affordable alternative for smaller employers -- the company has sold its drug wipe kit to more than 100 small companies during the past year.

Swiping your office light switches and employee keyboards for the presence of drugs sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen, but legal experts say workers would have little recourse against this type of testing. "Anything in the workplace is fair game for a company," Maher quoted Lawrence Lorber, a partner in labor and employment group of Proskauer Rose LLP.