Drug Testing

Management Problems and Legal Challenges Facing DOT's Industry Programs Gao ID: RCED-90-31 November 27, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the approach that the Department of Transportation (DOT) used to implement its transportation industry drug-testing program, focusing on: (1) six transportation agencies' development of economic evaluations and the status of their programs; (2) whether the Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) provided sufficient guidance to DOT agencies to ensure effective program implementation; (3) the legal issues of the implementing regulations; and (4) how proposed legislation compared with DOT drug-testing regulations.

GAO found that: (1) although regulations required transportation employers to begin drug testing by the end of 1989, three of the six agencies moved their implementation dates back from 1 to 4 months; (2) although the agencies' drug-testing programs covered similar types of safety-sensitive employees, they did not include such practices as providing comprehensive guidance to employers, reviewing employers' submission of drug-testing plans, and monitoring employer programs; (3) two of the six agencies' programs included each of those practices, while one did not include any of them; (4) one agency planned to monitor employer compliance but provided limited guidance to employers and did not plan to review employer drug-testing plans; (5) the other two agencies provided employer guidance and planned to monitor employer compliance, but did not plan to review employer's programs; (6) OST did not provide the agencies with guidance on what program information to gather from employers in order to evaluate overall program success; (7) most of the union and employee association challenges to DOT drug-testing regulations ranged from the constitutionality of random drug testing to DOT basic statutory authority to mandate private-sector employee drug testing; and (8) the key differences between the proposed legislation and DOT regulations concerned requirements for alcohol testing and penalties for employers who failed to comply with regulations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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