How can I find a new job that does NOT require drug testing without cause?
SAMSHA disagrees. They maintain that they have the right to test any employee they wish. I’m sure they’d argue that people who have control over large electronic doohickies with lots of blinky lights and fancy wires, and fans are in very dangerous jobs. Or some such nonsense. The point is not that they’re incorrect under the law; I agree with you, they’re incorrect. The point is that they may try to drug test a person who holds such a job, and the employee would have to refuse the test, lose the job, and sue in order to prove otherwise. Furthermore, many government IT jobs are defined as sensitive and now require security clearances, which carry separate random drug testing requirements. My point is that you shouldn’t assume a job is safe from random drug testing simply because it’s with the government.
Von Raab doesn’t validate just “safety” reasons for drug testing, but also national security reasons. National Security can easily be argued to encompass virtually anyone with any sort of IT job worth having. ND¢’s statement that drug tests “can only be done for cause” is true to a degree, but not if you use “for cause” in the same sense that the OP does. In ND¢’s comment, “for cause” means… “for any reason that the federal government deems ‘reasonable'” — which could very easily entail random drug testing for a great many positions (yes, even IT positions). Does Von Raab give blanket license to drug test anyone on the Federal payroll? No. The tests just have to be “reasonable” by Fourth Amendment standards. Even a cursory study of Fourth Amendment law reveals this to be a far lower standard than the OP would likely prefer from his employer. Besides… the Government, last I checked, often required you to give them persmission — (On preview…
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