Are You Positive? The Relationship of Minority Composition to Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing

Abstract

Although testing for alcohol and drug use is common in the U.S. workplace, relatively little is known about the characteristics of workplaces that test and about the consequences to persons tested. This paper describes the link between drug and alcohol testing and the minority composition of worksites. The data come from a 1999 survey of 264 union officials in the telecommunications industry. These preliminary data suggest minority worksites were more likely to perform pre-employment and just-cause testing and less likely to perform random drug testing, even after considering workplace characteristics such as normative use of drugs. A similar but weaker association was found for alcohol testing.