May an employer require post-incident drug testing for an employee who reports a workplace injury or illness?

Recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses

OSHA 29 CFR 1904 does not prohibit drug testing of employees. It only prohibits employers from using drug testing, or the threat of drug testing, as a form of retaliation against employees who report injuries or illnesses. If an employer conducts drug testing to comply with the requirements of a state or federal law or regulation, the employer’s motive would not be retaliatory and this rule would not prohibit such testing.

OSHA also says that the agency would look at the reasonableness of the test for each specific incident. If it would be reasonable to presume that an employee was impaired based on the facts surrounding the incident, then drug testing would be allowed. However, if an employee is injured as a result of an incident that clearly has no relation to whether or not he/she was impaired (such as a bee sting, repetitive motion injury, or injury due to lack of a machine guard), OSHA would generally not be in favor of drug testing.