Drug testing - Iowa

Private-sector drug free workplaces
Iowa has a detailed and complex drug testing law. Private sector employers can only test after a written policy is developed and provided to employees. Testing must be conducted within terms of the written policy.

Before testing, an employer must establish a written employee awareness program. It must include an Employee Assistance Program or resource file that provides information on where workers can get help for substance abuse problems. Special provisions apply to testing of minors.

Test types: The law authorizes, pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, and post-accident testing. It also allows unannounced testing of a randomly selected group of workers. Employers may test during and after completion of drug or alcohol rehabilitation.

Pre-employment: Employers may test prospective employees who have made a written or oral application to become an employee.

Reasonable suspicion: Reasonable suspicion tests may be based on evidence that an employee is using or has used alcohol or other drugs in violation of the company’s written policy. The need to test must be based on specific and articulable facts and reasonable inferences drawn from the facts in light of experience. Testing may be based on:

• Direct observation of substance abuse while at work,
• Impairment due to alcohol or other drug use,
• Abnormal conduct, erratic behavior, or significant deterioration in performance while at work,
• A credible report of alcohol or drug use from a reliable source,
• Evidence of tampering with a drug test,
• Evidence that an employee has caused an accident while at work causing sufficient injury or damage to require a report to OSHA, or
• Evidence that an employee has made, sold, possessed or used drugs while at work.

Unannounced (random) testing: Unannounced testing may be conducted when workers are randomly selected from pools of employees consisting of the entire population at a particular worksite, the entire full-time employee population at particular worksite, or a pool of employees in a safety-sensitive position.

“Safety-sensitive position” means a job where an accident could cause loss of human life, serious bodily injury, or significant property or environmental damage, including a job with duties that include immediate supervision of a person in a safety-sensitive position. The designation of a safety-sensitive position must be based on job functions, not only the environment in which work is performed.

Post-accident: Employers may conduct drug or alcohol testing in investigating workplace accidents in which the accident resulted in sufficient injury to require a report to OSHA, or resulted in damage to property, including to equipment, in an amount reasonably estimated at the time of the accident to exceed $1,000.

Testing procedures: Specific testing procedures must be followed. These include provisions relating to privacy, sample collection, documentation, and transportation to the testing facility. The employer’s policy must include requirements regarding breath testing devices and qualifications for those administering the tests.

An employer must provide an employee or prospective employee with a list of drugs to be included in the test. An employee must have the opportunity to provide relevant information, including identification of prescription or nonprescription drugs, or other relevant medical information.

Samples may include urine or oral fluids. Hair samples may be used for prospective employees. Sample collection must be performed:

• Under sanitary conditions,
• With respect for the privacy of the individual being tested,
• In a way that precludes contamination or substitution of the sample.

Oral fluid testing must be performed in the presence of the individual from whom the sample was collected.

A blood test is only allowed when an employee is involved in an accident at work and the blood test is administered by a health care provider without direction of the employer.

Drug testing samples must be split into two components at collection time. Alcohol testing samples are collected using an alcohol screening device or non-evidential breath testing device. If the initial sample is positive, the employer must use an evidential breath testing device for the confirmatory test. If a confirmatory test is needed, it is taken immediately after the initial test.

All confirmatory testing must be conducted at a laboratory certified by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) or the Iowa Department of Public Health. A confirmatory test must use a chromatographic technique. A medical review officer must review and interpret any positive results before they are released to the employer.

If the written policy provides for alcohol testing, the standard for alcohol concentration must not be less than .02.

A medical review officer must review and interpret any confirmed positive drug test results.

Procedures for a positive test: When a confirmed positive test is reported to the employer by the medical review officer, the employer must notify the employee in writing by certified mail return receipt requested. The notification must include:

• The test results,
• The employee’s right to obtain a second confirmatory test within seven days of the date the letter was sent,
• The cost of the second confirmatory test.

The employee must pay for the second confirmatory test. In the event the second confirmatory test is negative, the employee must be reimbursed by the employer for testing expenses. The employer may not take disciplinary action based on the test results.

Paying for tests: An employer must pay the cost of required drug and alcohol testing. The time required for testing is considered work time for purposes of compensation and benefits for employees.

Consequences of a positive test: The employer’s policy must include uniform requirements for disciplinary or rehabilitative actions that are taken when an employee tests positive for alcohol or drugs or refuses to provide a sample. An employer may only take actions that are stated in the written policy. This may include:

• A requirement to enroll in employer-provided or approved rehabilitation, treatment or counseling,
• Suspension, with or without pay, for a designated period of time,
• Termination of employment,
• Refusal to hire a prospective employee,
• Other adverse employment action, in conformance with the employer’s written policy, including relevant collective bargaining agreement provisions.

Successful completion of rehabilitation may be a condition of continued employment.

An employee may be suspended with or without pay pending the outcome of final test results. If the test result is not a confirmed positive, which indicates a violation of the employer’s written policy, the suspended employee shall be reinstated with back pay and interest.

Payment for alcohol rehabilitation: If an employee tests positive for alcohol, employers with more than 50 employees may be required to pay up to $2,000 in rehabilitation costs for an employee, depending on employee benefit plan coverage.

The employee:

• Must have been employed for at least 12 of the past 18 months,
• Be a first-time violator of the employer’s substance abuse policy, and
• Agree to receive rehabilitation, if required by the employer’s policy.

Confidentiality: Drug test results are confidential communications. They may only be disclosed:

• When the employee or prospective employee who was tested requests the results in writing,
• When disclosure is required under state or federal law,
• When the information is required for substance abuse evaluation or treatment of the employee.

Minors: When an employee or applicant is a minor, employers must provide a copy of the written drug and alcohol testing policy to the parent of the employee or applicant. The employer must obtain a receipt or acknowledgment from the parent that a copy of the policy has been received.

Notice of positive drug test results that must be reported to an individual must also be provided to the parent of the minor by certified mail, return receipt requested.

Supervisor training: Supervisors involved with drug or alcohol testing must attend a minimum of two hours of initial training and an hour of subsequent training each year.

Training must include:

• Information concerning the recognition of evidence of employee alcohol and other drug abuse,
• Documentation and corroboration of employee alcohol and other drug abuse, and
• The referral of employees who abuse alcohol or other drugs to the employee assistance program or to the resource file maintained by the employer.

Employer immunity: An employer who establishes a policy and initiates a testing program in accordance with state law is immune from a cause of action arising because of:

• Drug and alcohol testing,
• Taking action on the basis of a positive drug or alcohol test,
• Failure to test for drugs or alcohol,
• Action taken related to a false negative drug or alcohol test result,
• Testing or taking action against an employee or applicant with a confirmed positive test result due to the use of medical cannabidiol.

Regulatory references: Iowa’s private sector drug testing law is found in Iowa Code Section 730.5 and the Iowa Administrative Code Section 641.

Court cases

In Dix v. Casey’s General Stores, Inc., Supreme Court of Iowa, June 25, 2021, employees who tested positive on a random test argued that they did not have safety-sensitive jobs and should not have been included in a testing pool of safety-sensitive employees. The employees were assigned to light duty, sorting cigarette returns in a warehouse setting. The court ruled that employees who worked in an area where safety-sensitive jobs were performed, but did not perform the safety-sensitive jobs, should not have been included in the random testing pool.

The case also addressed random selection of employees for the test. The company randomly selected 90 percent of employees from the testing pool. The remainder were placed on an alternate list. The original list was missing some employees and included some employees who were on leave or had switched shifts. Two employees were inadvertently left off the list. The court ruled that while the selection process was not perfect, the employer substantially complied with the law.

In addition, on the day of the test, the employer failed to provide employees with a list of drugs to be tested for and did not give employees the opportunity to provide relevant information that could impact test results. The court ruled that because the company had provided a list of drugs to be tested for in its new drug abuse policy, it had substantially complied with the requirement to provide the list. It had also complied with the requirement to allow employees to provide relevant medical information because they had the opportunity to provide this information to the medical review officer who reviewed and interpreted the test results.

In Woods v. Charles Gabus Ford, Iowa Supreme Court, June 25, 2021, an employee contended that the employer failed to properly communicate with him after a positive test result was received. The employee had been randomly selected for a drug test and tested positive for methamphetamine. After the test result was confirmed, the doctor made multiple attempts to contact the employee but was unsuccessful. The employer terminated the employee and sent him a letter informing him of the drug test results and the right to a confirmatory test. The letter noted that he would have to pay for the test and would be reimbursed for the cost of the test if the result tested negative. The letter did not include the cost of the test. It was sent by certified mail, but was not sent with return receipt requested, as required under state law.

The court ruled that the employer did not comply with Iowa’s drug testing law when it did not provide the cost of the retest. It had, however, substantially complied with the law when it sent the letter by certified mail, even though it was not sent with return receipt requested.

Drug test cheating law

It is a criminal offense to use synthetic urine or urine additives to cheat on a drug or alcohol test. Under the law, a person shall not manufacture, market, sell, distribute, use, or possess synthetic urine or a urine additive for the purpose of defrauding a drug or alcohol test.

Synthetic urine is defined as “any substance that is designed to simulate the composition, chemical properties, physical appearance, or physical properties of human urine for the purpose of defrauding a drug or alcohol test.”

Urine additive is defined as “any substance that is designed to be added to human urine for the purpose of defrauding a drug or alcohol test.”

Individuals are also prohibited from using their own urine that was expelled prior to the collection of a urine sample for the test for the purpose of defrauding the test. It is also against the law to use the urine of another person for the test.

A person collecting a urine sample who knows or reasonably suspects that the individual being testing has used synthetic urine or a urine additive to defraud the test may report this information to law enforcement authorities.

A person who violates the law is guilty of a simple misdemeanor for a first offense and a serious misdemeanor for each subsequent offense. Substance abuse evaluation and treatment may be required by the court in lieu of or in addition to other penalties.

Workers’ compensation
The Iowa workers’ compensation law provides that an employee may be disqualified from benefits coverage if the employee’s injuries are caused by the employee’s addiction to narcotic drugs or to intoxication if it was a substantial factor in causing the injury.

Unemployment compensation

A person is disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance if the person is separated from employment due to ingesting marijuana in the workplace, working while under the influence of marijuana, or testing positive for any other controlled substance that a person is using unlawfully.