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fired for negative drug test

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barrryyy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Tennessee. Hi everyone, a simple case here I think.
I was hired and worked one day. At the end of the day, my supervisor told me I didn't pass the drug test. Astonished, I called the lab and was told that my results were negative/dilute. I called my employer to respectfully ask wtf. I was told that "dilute" implies tampering and I could, if I wanted, retest. Upon retesting four days later I tested negative. I called my employer back immediately and was told I was terminated, no reason given. My seperation notice arrived in the mail the same day and stated reason was "drug use". While I understand the concept of "at will", this seems beyond the pale.
Can their "reason" be untrue AND slanderous? Now I have this on my record.
I retested "as soon as possible", according to my understanding of the law. This entire sequence of events occured within a one week time frame. Any observations? thanks
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
No, this is not slander. Slander occurs when FALSE information is broadcast to an audience and as a result you suffered damages as the law sees damages.

It is not illegal to fire you for failing the drug test.
 

barrryyy

Junior Member
perhaps I wasn't clear enough

I did not "fail" the drug tests. I tested negative twice (no trace of drugs) While an employer can fire an "at will" employee for any reason (such as parting your hair on the wrong side), my question was: what if the reason given on my seperation notice is demonstrably and patently untrue AND slanderous? Any legal minds out there? thanks
 

mariner

Member
barrryyy, sorry to hear your employer treated you so unfairly. Sounds like they just wanted to find a reason to fire you and the reason is a lie. Thats the sorry thing about employment at will. Companies will go to any extreme to terminated someone for any reason even if it means lying.

I wish I could help you in some way. After being exposed to this site, I guess you have found, along with myself that you aren't going to get really good legal advice. Just opinions of some who have no legal background at all. Don't get me wrong. There are a FEW people here who will help out, but really not that many. This is mostly used by the creators of the site to play around with others minds. It's not becoming at all. I dont post here much because of the answers I get. It's too bad the creator of the site cant seperate the boys/girls from the men/women here. It would be a much nicer site.

Now I will wait to be ousted from this site. That is what they do when they dont like you talking about them and their childish ways. And for the creator of the site...toss away... I am not a troll, just giving my honest opinion of your site. It should be used to help people who come here in sincerity looking for answers. Quit mocking them.
 

Shay-Pari'e

Senior Member
mariner said:
barrryyy, sorry to hear your employer treated you so unfairly. Sounds like they just wanted to find a reason to fire you and the reason is a lie. Thats the sorry thing about employment at will. Companies will go to any extreme to terminated someone for any reason even if it means lying.

I wish I could help you in some way. After being exposed to this site, I guess you have found, along with myself that you aren't going to get really good legal advice. Just opinions of some who have no legal background at all. Don't get me wrong. There are a FEW people here who will help out, but really not that many. This is mostly used by the creators of the site to play around with others minds. It's not becoming at all. I dont post here much because of the answers I get. It's too bad the creator of the site cant seperate the boys/girls from the men/women here. It would be a much nicer site.

Now I will wait to be ousted from this site. That is what they do when they dont like you talking about them and their childish ways. And for the creator of the site...toss away... I am not a troll, just giving my honest opinion of your site. It should be used to help people who come here in sincerity looking for answers. Quit mocking them.
Start your own thread instead of hijacking this guy's. He got the correct answer, and you are just using his thread for your own issues.
 

turbowray

Member
ouch

barrryyy said:
I did not "fail" the drug tests. I tested negative twice (no trace of drugs) While an employer can fire an "at will" employee for any reason (such as parting your hair on the wrong side), my question was: what if the reason given on my seperation notice is demonstrably and patently untrue AND slanderous? Any legal minds out there? thanks
cbg is more than a legal mind then alot of us put together,i would imagine that the reason they put failed drug test is that there are some drugs that stay in the body only about three days,and the "diluted" could be an indication that you tried to cover drug usage up,even if it is not true,and by the time the second test was administered,the drugs that could have been taken,that could have only taken a few days to leave the system,were gone,hence a second "negative" result. I am not saying you took these drugs,but i am saying that it could appear to the employer that that is a possibility,and they were being on the safe side. CBG would not state something to offend you,she just stated the facts according to the results,and the information given in your post. There are many reasons why a dilute result would accure,and one of these is drinking large quanities of liquids to dilute the urine so the test could come up inconclusive or negative. Please dont get offended if the answers are not what you want to hear. Sorry this happened by the way!
 

barrryyy

Junior Member
Thank you Mariner for your thoughtful reply. Yours is the only intelligent response I have received so far. After looking through this site, I have to second your observations. Just for everyone's enlightenment, a negative/dilute result on a drug test is a NEGATIVE result.
The second test is "the test of record". And no, I don't do drugs and never have. I asked a simple point of law question.
 

Shay-Pari'e

Senior Member
barrryyy said:
Thank you Mariner for your thoughtful reply. Yours is the only intelligent response I have received so far. After looking through this site, I have to second your observations. Just for everyone's enlightenment, a negative/dilute result on a drug test is a NEGATIVE result.
The second test is "the test of record". And no, I don't do drugs and never have. I asked a simple point of law question.

:rolleyes:
 

weenor

Senior Member
barrryyy said:
Thank you Mariner for your thoughtful reply. Yours is the only intelligent response I have received so far. After looking through this site, I have to second your observations. Just for everyone's enlightenment, a negative/dilute result on a drug test is a NEGATIVE result.
The second test is "the test of record". And no, I don't do drugs and never have. I asked a simple point of law question.

For your information a DILUTE can be deemed a positive, because the implication is that you were trying to cover something up. The employer apparently became concerned about your honesty. Perfectly legal.
 

turbowray

Member
hmmm

barrryyy said:
Thank you Mariner for your thoughtful reply. Yours is the only intelligent response I have received so far. After looking through this site, I have to second your observations. Just for everyone's enlightenment, a negative/dilute result on a drug test is a NEGATIVE result.
The second test is "the test of record". And no, I don't do drugs and never have. I asked a simple point of law question.
Your response to cbgs answer was the only thing not intelligent. I stated why she could have come to this conclusion,but i guess the only thing you were looking for was someone to say that your work was wrong and you are right,so i give up. We won't give you advice that will just make you happy,it will just be the truth. So spend your thousands of dollars fighting this to find that we were right in the first place,because your test was dilute,the employer had every right to act as though it was a positive. Note in my response that i said i am not saying you did drugs,just pointing out an example of why a dilute result would give the employer reason to treat it LIKE

a positive,so thanks for putting down me trying to explain....i guess you cant make everyone happy here!
 

turbowray

Member
hmmm

barrryyy said:
Thank you Mariner for your thoughtful reply. Yours is the only intelligent response I have received so far. After looking through this site, I have to second your observations. Just for everyone's enlightenment, a negative/dilute result on a drug test is a NEGATIVE result.
The second test is "the test of record". And no, I don't do drugs and never have. I asked a simple point of law question.
yes thank you for being the only one who said your right and they are wrong....isnt this what it boils down to barrryy,you only came here to hear what you wanted to hear and disreguard all other posts as being immature. Hmmm next time we will lie to you just to make you happy! (NOT)!!!!
 

Betty

Senior Member
As indicated by some of the other posters, a urine sample can be diluted because of drinking a lot of liquids prior to the test. There are some people who use drugs (I'm not saying you use drugs) who do this so their test doesn't show positive for drugs. ( drinking a lot removes "toxins") Because the urine is sometimes too diluted & too clean, some cos. suspect drug usage & will "fail" the drug test. They then might fire or not hire someone who they suspect of possible drug usage.
 

barrryyy

Junior Member
This from the Dept. of Transportation (the gold standard of drug testing):
"While an employer may require one additional test following a negative dilute result (in pre-employment or other testing situations), a negative dilute test result is a valid negative test for DOT's purposes. If the second test is also negative-dilute, the employer must accept that result and cannot continue re-collections. The second test is the test of record. An applicant/employee's refusal to submit to a re-collection for a negative-dilute result is a refusal to test under the DOT rule. Because a negative dilute test result is a negative test, the employer is authorized to have the applicant begin performing safety-sensitive functions. The reason for the change (2004) is that the DOT has learned of a number of cases in which individuals appear to have had legitimate medical explanations for producing specimens with a creatinine level of less than or equal to 5 mg/dL. In addition, the DOT concluded that there is an increasing consensus among scientific and medical experts that the 5 mg/dL standard may not be appropriate." ......
While this all very interesting (not), it has nothing to do with my question. I know what a diluted specimen is. There are many innocent reasons for a diluted specimen. My question related to being fired for (apparently) suspicion on the part of my employer. If my seperation notice had said "insubordination" or something like that, then I would have no recourse (being an at will employee). But I was fired and slandered in my union pipefitting community by the pronouncement of "drug use" after 2 negative tests. I had hoped that a legal mind (with reading comprehension skills) could have reflected a bit on my situation. I came here looking for honest help. Instead I find in looking through this entire site a prevailing theme of "take your lumps", "forget about it", "perfectly legal", "go home" etc. While the insurance/corporate world wouldn't spend a dime to dissuade an individual from legal relief here, a board like this is read by many people in perhaps a similar situation as myself or others who have asked an honest question. They would spend millions (and do) in astroturfing boards like this. Anyone reading this who has come to this site looking for honest help should google "astroturfing" (if you don't know what it is) and reconsider any advice you have gotten on this site. Betty and Mariner, thank you for your well intentioned replies, (indicated by your low post count). The rest of you are shills (thousands of posts which betray your motivation) who apparently work in some capacity to dissuade the masses from legal relief. At this point I don't question your intelligence, I question your integrity. You should be ashamed. I hope the money is worth it. Buh-bye
 
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