Drug Testing and Invasion of Privacy - Essay Example

There are legal, medical, and moral issues that need to be addressed before any test is done randomly, especially the common urine tests that many employees find themselves victims too. Random drug testing continues to pose a legal and moral dilemma regarding the employees’ rights to work in a productive workplace and their fundamental privacy rights (O’Keefe 1987). With the many cases of drug abuse in the workplace, companies have resorted to random drug tests to check whether an employee is using drugs or not. However, there are legal, medical, and moral issues that need to be addressed before any test is done randomly, especially the common urine tests that many employees find themselves victims to.

Invasion of Privacy

 Random drug tests are a total invasion of privacy. Drug tests should only be conducted when investigations have been done and there is a high possibility that an alleged employee is using them. There are very few laws that protect the privacy of employees which subjects them to tests done against their consent (Santora, 2005). What makes the matter worse is that the majority are tested even when they have not been suspected of drug use. However, in some professions or jobs like transportation, the tests are important as they serve to check whether the driver is under the influence of drugs and hence enhance the safety of the passengers.

Many employees know that drug tests are intrusive but because they want to safeguard their jobs they have to persevere and live with it. In some companies, one has to produce the urine that will be tested while under the watch of another person so that s/he does not tamper with the specimen. This is an invasion of privacy. In other cases, the employees are subjected to situations where they have to urinate in bathrooms where the water has been switched off or in worse cases subjected to removing their clothes and urinating as a person oversees it. This is not only degrading but also morally wrong.

Lab Procedures

The lab procedures performed on the specimen taken also shows an invasion of privacy. Apart from drug testing, there are other medical conditions and physical conditions and disorders that can be tested using urine. Take an example of genetic disorders and pregnancy tests. It is very wrong to have the urine taken in the first place as that will subject the employee to cases like such where some people can do the other tests not specified when taking the specimen and end up intruding into their privacy.  

There have been cases of errors happening in the lab during the performance of the tests where false positives lead to the ejection of employees from their jobs (Comer, 1994). This calls for the question of whether the tests should be done routinely or they should be conducted when there are allegations that the employee may be using some drugs that are affecting his performance in the workplace. In such cases where the employee may be behaving in a manner to suggest drug usage then his or her consent is needed before going ahead to do the tests (American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 2002).

Safety-Sensitive Jobs

In occupations like the transport industry, sobriety and alertness should always be checked to ensure that the passengers or the vehicle are in safe hands. These include occupations such as pilots, truck drivers, and bus drivers among others (Rust, 1986). However, though it is important to check sobriety and alertness the random drug tests serve little if any help to curb drug use in the field. In place of random drug tests, the companies can resolve to improve technology like computer-assisted performance tests.

By use of such tests hand-eye coordination and response time can be established and this is more important in the industry compared to drug tests.

This method is also specific and it does not raise legal and moral concerns about the invasion of privacy (American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 2002).

 I would not advocate for the use of random drug testing in any occupation. Other methods that ensure the privacy of the employee is observed should be used instead. From my classes in psychology and understanding of the employees’ rights, I would always support a system that takes concern of the employees’ privacy and address the legal and ethical issues that lay behind such a practice.

Conclusion

As much as it is important to enhance sobriety and alertness in the workplace, nothing can justify the performance of random drug tests on employees (American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 2002).  The companies should resolve to better or alternative methods to achieve the same results without interfering with their employees’ privacy.