A.
It is the policy of the Town to provide safe, dependable and economical
services to its citizens and to provide safe, healthy, satisfying
working conditions for its employees. Furthermore, it is also the
policy of the Town to comply with the requirements of federal laws
and regulations related to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing
Act of 1991.
B.
As a means of achieving these goals, it is the policy of the Town:
(1)
To seek to ensure that its employees are not impaired in their ability
to perform assigned work functions and duties as a consequence of
unauthorized drug and alcohol use;
(2)
To seek to create a work environment free from the adverse effects
of the unauthorized use and abuse of alcohol and controlled substance
by employees;
(3)
To seek to prohibit the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensing,
possession or use of alcohol and controlled substances by its employees;
and
(4)
To encourage employees to seek professional assistance when personal
problems, including alcohol and controlled substance dependency, adversely
affect their ability to perform assigned work duties.
As used in this article, the following terms have the meanings
indicated:
A license issued pursuant to state law which authorizes an
individual to operate a commercial motor vehicle.
A motor vehicle or combination of motor vehicles used in
commerce to transport passengers or property, and defined as a commercial
motor vehicle by the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of
1991. Such a vehicle:
Has a gross combination weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds,
inclusive of a towed unit with a gross vehicle weight rating of more
than 10,000 pounds; or
Has a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds;
or
Is designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the
driver; or
Is of any size and is used in the transportation of materials
found to be hazardous for the purposes of the Hazardous Materials
Transportation Act[1] and which require the motor vehicle to be placarded under
the hazardous materials regulations.
A licensed physician (medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy)
responsible for receiving laboratory results generated by an employer's
drug testing program who has knowledge of substance abuse disorders
and has appropriate medical training to interpret and evaluate an
individual's confirmed positive test result, together with his
or her medical history and any other relevant biomedical information.
All time that a commercial motor vehicle driver is performing,
ready to perform, or immediately available to perform the following
tasks:
Waiting to be dispatched, unless the driver has been relieved
from duty;
Inspecting, servicing, or conditioning any commercial motor
vehicle at any time;
Driving time;
Remaining in or upon any commercial motor vehicle, while not
driving, except the time spent resting in a sleeper berth;
Loading or unloading a vehicle, supervising or assisting in
the loading or unloading, attending a vehicle being loaded or unleaded,
remaining in readiness to operate the vehicle or in giving or receiving
receipts for shipments loaded or unloaded;
Performing the driver requirements relating to accidents;
Repairing, obtaining assistance, or remaining in attendance
upon a disabled vehicle.
A licensed physician (medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy),
or a licensed or certified psychologist, social worker, employee assistance
professional or addiction counselor (certified by the National Association
of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors Certification Commission)
with knowledge of and clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment
of alcohol- and controlled-substance-related disorders.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 49 U.S.C. § 5101 et seq.
A.
The Town Manager or designee shall be the controlled substance and
alcohol policy administrator for the Town. Any inquiries concerning
this article, its application, administration or its interpretation
shall be made to the policy administrator.
B.
The policy administrator shall develop all forms necessary to carry
out the provisions of this policy, unless the forms are provided under
federal Department of Transportation's Part 40 of the Code of
Federal Regulations. The forms shall be provided to appropriate persons
who are responsible for the implementation and management of this
policy.
B.
An employee may not consume alcohol within eight hours after an accident
for which the employee is subject to post-accident testing as specified
in this article.
C.
No employee shall possess, purchase, transport or consume alcohol
while on duty, while in a Town uniform, or while driving a Town vehicle.
D.
Town employees may not manufacture, possess, sell, use, administer,
dispense, or distribute controlled substances, except that employees
may use controlled dangerous substances in a manner authorized by
medical prescription. In the event an employee is authorized to use
a controlled substance by medical prescription, it is the employee's
duty to inform the prescribing doctor that they perform safety-sensitive
functions while at work and to obtain from the doctor a release to
perform such work while taking or using the prescribed substance.
The employee is prohibited from using the prescribed controlled substance
or substances in any manner other than that prescribed.
E.
Employees also may not report to work impaired or under the influence
of alcohol or controlled dangerous substances, or impaired by lawfully
prescribed medications to such an extent that would prevent the employee
from performing the duties of the employee's position in a safe
manner.
A.
Any employee whose job performance requires the possession of a valid
CDL must notify the policy administrator of any conviction for a violation
of any state or local law relating to motor vehicle traffic control
(other than parking violations) within 30 days of the conviction.
In addition, such an employee who loses his or her CDL for a violation
of the law, or as a consequence of any administrative action, shall
notify the policy administrator immediately of the loss of the CDL
and shall be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
B.
Any employee convicted of illegal conduct related to controlled substances,
including their manufacture, possession, sale, and distribution, either
in a federal or a state court, must immediately report such a conviction
to the policy administrator. Conviction resulting from such illegal
conduct may result in disciplinary action. The failure of an employee
promptly to report his or her controlled substance-related conviction
to the policy administrator will be regarded by the Town as a serious
violation of this policy, which in and of itself will constitute grounds
for disciplinary action, up to and including discharge.
A.
Employees shall be subject to alcohol and controlled substance testing,
including the following types of tests: preemployment testing, random
testing, reasonable-suspicion testing; post-accident testing, return-to-work
testing; and follow-up testing, as follows:
(1)
Preemployment urine drug testing and alcohol testing, if mandated
by federal regulations, shall be required of all applicants for positions
covered by this article as a condition of the application procedure.
Receipt of satisfactory test results is required prior to commencement
of employment and/or engaging in safety-sensitive functions for the
first time. The failure of a controlled substance or alcohol test
disqualifies an applicant from appointment to Town employment for
a period of at least 120 days. A negative controlled substance and
alcohol test shall be required prior to further consideration for
any employment.
(2)
Reasonable suspicion urine and/or breath alcohol testing shall be
made on the basis of documented objective facts and circumstances
which are consistent with the effects of substance use. The determination
that reasonable suspicion exists must be based on specific contemporaneous
observations concerning the appearance, behavior, speech and body
odors of the employee which are capable of being articulated. The
observations for controlled substances may include indications of
the chronic and withdrawal effects of controlled substances. Reasonable
suspicion observations and reports can only be made by persons who
are trained to detect the signs and symptoms of controlled substance
and alcohol use and who may reasonably conclude that an employee may
be adversely affected or impaired in their work performance due to
the use of a controlled substance or alcohol. The observing supervisor
or manager is required to complete the appropriate required documentation
within 24 hours of the observed behavior or before the results of
a controlled substance test are released, whichever is sooner.
(3)
Reasonable suspicion testing shall be required and completed whenever
possible within two hours of the observation, but in any case no later
than eight hours after the observation for breath-alcohol testing
and 32 hours for controlled-substance testing. The Town will document
the reasons for not promptly conducting the required tests.
(a)
Federal Highway Administration regulations require alcohol and
controlled-substance testing following an accident for any employee
who was performing safety-sensitive functions if the accident involved
a fatality, or for any employee who receives a citation for a moving
traffic violation. The Town also may require testing for all employees
whose performance may have contributed to the accident, as well as
any employee who was, or employees who were, involved in an accident
in which injury to a person requires transport to a medical treatment
facility, or disabling damage to one or more vehicles requires towing
from the accident site to occur.
(b)
Post-accident testing shall be required and completed whenever
possible within two hours of the accident occurrence, but in any case
no later than eight hours after the accident for breath-alcohol testing
and 32 hours for controlled-substance testing. An employee involved
in an accident shall refrain from alcohol consumption for eight hours
following the accident or until the employee undergoes a post-accident
alcohol test, whichever occurs first. The Town will document the reasons
for not promptly conducting the required tests.
(c)
Any employee who leaves the scene of an accident without appropriate
authorization prior to submission to post-accident controlled-substance
and alcohol testing shall be considered to have refused the tests.
This does not require the delay of medical attention or other assistance
necessary in responding to the accident.
(4)
Random testing shall be conducted on employees performing safety-sensitive
functions. Random testing shall be unannounced and conducted with
unpredictable frequency throughout the year, using an established,
scientifically based selection method articulated in the Federal Highway
Administration regulations. Testing shall be conducted whenever and
as ordered by appropriate supervisory personnel, but no less frequently
than required by federal law and regulations.
(5)
Return to duty urine drug and/or breath-alcohol testing shall be
required for an employee who has previously tested positive for any
individual controlled substance, or general category of such substances,
or who admitted alcohol or substance abuse and received treatment
for such abuse. The employee must test negative and be evaluated and
released to return to work by a substance abuse professional (sap).
(6)
Follow-up testing of any employee allowed to return to work will
be required. The employee will be required to submit to frequent,
unannounced, random urine drug and/or breath-alcohol testing for at
least six times in the following 12 months after returning to work.
Follow-up testing may be continued for a period of up to 60 months
from the employee's return-to-work date.
(7)
Any employee who questions the results of a required urine drug test
under this policy may request that an additional test be conducted.
The test must be conducted on a split sample that was provided at
the same time as the original sample and the test analysis may be
conducted at a different qualified laboratory than where the original
test was conducted. If the results of the additional test contradict
those of the earlier initial and confirmation tests, and no irregularities
pertaining to the additional test results are discerned upon review
by the medical review officer (MRO), the policy administrator shall
declare the original tests to be canceled and invalid, and note in
the employee's records that the original test results are to
be considered neither positive nor negative. All costs for employee-requested
retesting shall be paid by the employee unless the second test invalidates
the original test. An employee's request for a retest must be
made to the medical review officer (MRO) within 72 hours of the notice
to the employee of the initial test result. Requests made after the
seventy-two-hour limit will only be accepted if the delay was due
to documentable facts that were beyond the control of the employee.
(8)
Upon notification that an employee whose breath alcohol or confirmation
urinalysis test results have returned positive, the policy administrator,
or his or her designee, will immediately order that the employee in
question be removed from duty. The Town is not required to return
employees who have tested positive or otherwise violated this article
to a safety-sensitive position or to retain them as employees; moreover,
an employee cannot be returned to safety-sensitive duties until he
or she has been evaluated by a substance abuse professional, has complied
with recommended rehabilitation, and has received a negative result
on a return-to-duty test.
(9)
Any employee who:
(a)
Fails to report immediately to the test site; and/or
(b)
Fails to submit to the required testing, including all required
testing procedures; and/or
(c)
Fails to provide an adequate sample of urine for controlled-substance
testing or breath for alcohol testing without medical justification;
and/or
(d)
Provides an altered sample of urine is considered to have refused
to test and will be treated as if they had tested positive for either
alcohol or a controlled substance. Such individuals shall be subject
to disciplinary action, up to and including discharge. An employee
who states at the time of the test that he or she is physically unable
to provide an adequate urine or breath sample shall be evaluated by
a licensed physician selected by the Town.
B.
Testing procedures and results.
(1)
Alcohol tests are conducted on evidential breath-testing devices
that measure the concentration of alcohol in breath. An initial screening
test will be conducted. Any result that is less than 0.02 alcohol
concentration is considered negative. If the alcohol concentration
is 0.02 or greater, a second confirmatory test must be conducted.
Any employee who tests with an alcohol concentration of 0.02 or greater
shall be removed from safety-sensitive duties for at least 24 hours.
If the second test confirms that the alcohol concentration is 0.02
or greater, the test is considered positive.
(2)
Controlled-substance testing is conducted for the controlled substances
previously defined in this article. Individuals tested under this
article must provide a urine specimen that will be tested at a federally
certified laboratory. Urine specimens will be collected, and chain-of-custody
methods will be followed, to assure that the security, integrity and
identification of each specimen is protected. The actual testing for
controlled substances is a two-stage process. An initial screening
test is conducted for one or more of the controlled substances. A
confirmatory test is conducted for each identified controlled substance.
The confirmatory test is a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
analysis.
(3)
In determining whether the test results for a particular urine specimen
are to be considered positive or negative, the laboratory selected
by the Town will apply the applicable controlled-substance concentration
thresholds, or cutoff levels, identified in the guidelines periodically
issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
A current copy of these guidelines will be maintained by the policy
administrator and made available for review to individual employees
who request such an opportunity.
(4)
Any employee who tests positive on the confirmatory test shall be
interviewed by the Town's medical review officer (MRO). The MRO
will attempt to determine if there is an alternative medical explanation
for the test result. The employee will be notified of the results,
whether positive or negative. An employee whose original confirmation
test has returned positive may, within a specified time limit, request
a retest in the form of a second confirmation (GC/MS) test.
C.
Any employee who is found to have engaged in prohibited alcohol-
or controlled-substance-related conduct under this article shall be
immediately removed from work-related activity. Unless the employee's
employment is terminated, the employee shall not be permitted to resume
work, if at all, until the employee is has tested negative in a return-to-duty
test and satisfies such other reasonable requirements of the policy
administrator.
