What to do?

[char456]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

I had an accident at work and I was sent to take a drug test (policy). The test came back positive for meth use! I had just had a random drug test 2 weeks prior to this and it was negative. I argued the validity of the results and asked (begged) for them to take me for another test, I even offered to pay for it. The answer was no. I was put on administrative leave with pay until they decided what to do. I was called in and told that I had the choice of being terminated or resigning. I was told by HR that this was not happening because I failed a drug test. It was happening because since I failed the drug test my CDL was suspended by the state and having a CDL was part of my job requirement. Since I can't have the CDL, I was meeting what my job required. HR said that if I didn't fight it and just resigned the drug test would never be mentioned again. So (against my better judgment) I resigned.

Side note...I am working on my master's degree and have only one semester left. My degree is in the area of employment I "resigned" from. As part of my degree requirements, I am required to do so many observation hours with different companies. The company I worked for I happened to be placed at this semester. Me being randomly placed with the company had nothing to with me being employed there. Students are placed at a number of different companies in the area and I was placed where I worked.

A week after my forced resignation, I receive a call from my university telling me that they got an email from my employer saying that "they could no longer support me as a place for my employment." I call HR and ask what was going on and was told that they still had "my information" and could not allow me on their property for educational reasons and that it was their policy. The university says they will just replace me some where else to finish my observation hours. A day later, I am called again by the university and told that "we were going to have to meet about this." I go to the meeting with the dean. He asks why this company would no longer want me there. I tell him I asked the company the same thing and was told since I had resigned it was their policy to not allow me there. He asks why I resigned (my education and why I quit my job has nothing to do with each other), I tell him it was what was best for me at the time. He asks me to sign a paper giving them permission to speak with HR. I declined to do so. I didn't want them knowing about the positive drug test (that I still dispute) for professional reasons. Meeting over. I am informed 3 days later that I am being kicked out of the school! They have some bogus, stupid reason but I know it is because my employer told them about the test.

Without the email from my employer, I wouldn't have been kicked from the college. Is it ok that they notified my college? Do I have any recourse? I have one semester left and have spent $20,000 on this degree and I don't know what to do.

Thanks for your advice

[debtcollector`]

Perhaps the moral of the story is: Don't use illegal drugs.
Perhaps the moral of the story is: When you are right, don't fold like a cheap shirt.


Since you never outright said you didn't use meth, I tend to think that you did. My pop owns a trucking company and I can't imagine him or any of his drivers not fighting tooth and nail if there was an error of that magnitude.

So, I think you pissed away $20,000 for a not-so-cheap high. Learn from it and get clean.

DC

[quincy]

I agree with DC that, if the drug test results came back as a false positive, you should have fought the results at that time and demanded another test. You should not have agreed to resign.

At this point, you have little legal recourse.

When drug tests come back positive and are challenged by an employee as being a false positive, an employer must provide an alternate, more reliable method, to test for drugs, as a confirmatory test. This alternative test must be done at the employer's expense. Unless challenged, there is a presumption that the drug test results are valid.

Employers are protected if they have followed all the required provisions to ensure the tests are reliable and accurate (using uniform, scientifically acceptable means of testing for drugs), and if the employer has a reasonable and good faith reliance on the results of the test.

The employer is additionally protected from a defamation action if he does not disclose the test results to someone unauthorized to receive the information and the disclosure has not been done negligently. The state's action against your license is not within the employer's control, and informing the university of the reasons for your resignation and the reasons why they could no longer employ you was an allowable disclosure under the circumstances.

Although drug test results are considered confidential, employers can rarely be found liable for ANY actions taken against an employee based on drug test results (whether the results mistakenly show a false positive or not), unless it can be shown that the employer KNEW the results were in error and acted based on this known error and/or disclosed the results knowing they were in error.

If your CDL license was suspended by the state based on the drug test results that you failed to challenge satisfactorially, and you need a CDL license for your degree, you have, as DC said, lost your $20,000 and one career path.