Human Resource Blog

Drug Free Policy in West Virginia

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One of our better employees has a number of health problems and frequently takes drugs at work. We are a

West Virginia drug-free workplace. Do we have to fire her?

This is a concern of a lot of employers in West Virginia, but it’s an easy situation to handle.  You wouldn’t fire a diabetic employee for taking insulin at work. And you wouldn’t fire a worker who took his blood-pressure medication on the job. It would be equally absurd to fire someone who took aspirin for a headache, or took her anti-depressant in the break room or at her desk. 

It is not meant to prevent your employee from taking her medication to ease inflammation and pain. It’s not meant to prevent employees from taking any medication that is prescribed by their doctor.  It’s designed to stop a diabetic employee from taking insulin on the job. The worker who needs to take an aspirin for a headache is not the target of the drug-free workplace. Neither is the man with high blood pressure who must take his medication at work, nor the woman who takes her birth control pill in the break room, or in her cubicle.

You describe your employees as one of the best you have. Her medications have obviously not interfered with her work. If the drugs were prescribed by her doctor, and she’s taking them according to directions, neither your nor she have anything to worry about.

You may ask her to supply a statement from her physician outlining the fact that her medical condition requires these medications. But remember that if you do so, fairness would require you to ask other employees as well, including the one who is taking Prozac for depression. 

If you fired an employee for taking a medically valid drug, you could find yourself facing a lawsuit through the Americans with Disabilities Act. Your employee’s valid medications are none of your concern, particularly if they have been prescribed by her physician and if she’s using them according to instructions. You don’t even have to know what she’s taking her medications for. If you find out, you are obliged by confidentiality regulations not to disclose her condition to anyone else. JH