News

From the Wall Street Journal

Small Companies Move to Increase Anti-Drug Programs
Some Fall Under Expanded Federal Rules; Others See Workplace Savings

by Eugene Carlson

When a foreman at Chamberlain Contractors, Inc. allegedly caused a truck door to rip off in a collision in the paving company’s Laurel, MD parking lot last July, he faced more than an angry boss. He also had to cope with a mandatory post-accident drug test.

The day after the accident, the worker reported to a doctor’s office. But, the company says, he refused to produce a urine specimen as required by company policy. Refusing the test was worse than flunking it: The company says it fired the man.

The test was required under a comprehensive substance-abuse policy that covers every one of Chamberlain’s 65 employees, from the president on down. The aim is to identify drug users and prompt them to reform or else face dismissal.

"If you can’t catch them immediately, you catch them over time," says Harold Green, the company’s owner. "I tell you, after a year or two you’re going to see a different ethic around here."

The war on drugs, which has already enlisted a large chunk of big business, now is being taken up by many small companies as well. "The word on the street is that people with drug problems are going to small companies because they know that the IBMs and the Xeroxes and the GTEs are drug screening and have been for years," says Jean Johnson, operations vice president at Corporate Wellness Inc., a Mount Kisco, N.Y. drug-counseling firm. So the small employers see a growing need to protect themselves from drug abusers.

Moreover, as federal and state anti-drug rules expand their coverage, many small firms are discovering that a substance-abuse plan is as much a requirement of doing business as filing a tax return. Defense contractors, large interstate truckers, and companies involved in aviation and nuclear energy are among the concerns already covered by drug-abuse rules. And the list is growing. In December, for example, 35,000 interstate trucking companies with fewer than 50 drivers will have to begin living by Department of Transportation drug-testing rules.

Many smaller companies that fall outside the government’s regulatory net are installing anti-drug programs that go far beyond simply stuffing a "Just Say No" pamphlet into the weekly pay envelope. Some, including Chamberlain, have concluded that money spent to hire a substance-abuse specialist pays off in higher productivity and lower premiums for medical insurance and workers’ compensation coverage.

Says Richard Miller, president of Pennsylvania Precision Cast Parts Inc., a Myertown, PA, steel-casting concern: "I have 90-plus employees, and when you hear that 25% of the general population has admitted to some casual drug use, to think that I don’t have any users is somewhat naive."
Proponents of an aggressive anti-drug campaign say it also reduces the chances of a crippling lawsuit in which an injured employee could claim that employer indifference to drug use contributed to unsafe working conditions.

Still, employee drug testing is controversial, and the number of companies that use random tests–those given at random without advance notice–remains "minuscule," says Bill ones, corporate-affairs vice president at Potomac Electric Power Co. on loan to the Corporation Against Drug Abuse, a Washington group that gives advice to businesses about anti-drug programs. "A lot of individual employers believe that random testing is a violation of individual rights, and they don’t intend to go that way."

Mr. Miller of Pennsylvania Precision Cast Parts says he queried lawyers about the legality of random testing in designing his firm’s drug-abuse policy. "The basic advice I got was that as long as testing is universal, starting with myself, it couldn’t get us into any discrimination case."

Until recently, complex and expensive drug-abuse programs were beyond the reach of most small businesses. But the government-led drug war has spawned an industry of laboratories, consultants and counselors, making it relatively easy and inexpensive for small companies to hire the expert help they need.

For example, 50 laboratories certified by the National Institute of Drug Abuse now offer drug tests in which authorities say the odds of a "false positive" test resulting in a wrongful dismissal are virtually nil. Many local hospitals, looking for new profit centers, offer reasonably priced drug counseling programs.

At Chamberlain Contractors, Mr. Green says he pays $70 to $100 a year per worker for a program that includes pre-employment drug tests, random tests twice a year, quarterly training sessions for all workers and an Employee Assistance Program that offers counseling on divorce, rebellious teen-agers, finances and other topics that may be troubling employees in addition to drugs and alcohol.

"I don’t think that’s a lot of money to get quality workmanship, safe operation and a good mental outlook of the employees toward the company," Mr. Green says. One tangible result: a sharp reduction in accidents that has produced a $50,000 annual savings in workers’ compensation insurance premiums.

To prove he means business, the 35 year-old Mr. Green gets tested along with the rest of his workers. "It’s a good lesson for owners," he says. "You stand there naked except for a little smock. It makes you very humble."

Prospective employees at Chamberlain have to pay for their first drug test. The charge is $32. Since Chamberlain began pre-employment drug screening, five persons tested positive and weren’t hired. Mr. Green says "four or five" workers on the payroll failed random or post-accident tests, refused the company’s offer of counseling through the employee-assistance programs, and were dismissed.
A surprising 30% of Chamberlain’s work force seeks help each year from a counselor associated with Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, MD, the company’s employee-assistance-plan provider. Worker names are kept confidential.

Mr. Green says the system has been a powerful management tool for keeping employees mentally and physically fit while losing as few of them as possible. "I don’t toss then out the door," he says. "If they’re willing to be helped, I’ll go to any lengths to help them. About 85% of the time, people want to stay. They like the job, they like their peers."

CHAMBERLAIN CONTRACTORS, INC.
162 Lafayette Avenue, Laurel MD 20707
1-866-670-1234