SAFETY AND SECURITY: Opportunities to Improve the Effectiveness of Controls for Detecting Drug- and Alcohol-Related Issues of Employees in Safety-Sensitive Positions

This report assesses the effectiveness of company efforts to detect drug and alcohol issues among employees in safety-sensitive positions.

We identified weaknesses in the company’s controls for detecting drug- and alcohol-related issues among its employees in safety-sensitive positions. We found that 1) drug and alcohol use was more prevalent than identified by company testing and employee assistance programs, 2) testing requirements for employees were not consistently followed, 3) collection of drug and alcohol testing data was inefficient, 4) databases of employees who required random drug and alcohol testing were missing records, 5) not all supervisors were trained to detect potential impairment of employees, and 6) oversight of prescription drug use was limited.

We recommended the company establish a reliable procedure to track and monitor required drug and alcohol testing of employees in safety-sensitive positions, implement use of digital technology to improve data collection, ensure the database it uses to select employees for random testing includes all employees in safety-sensitive positions, and establish a process to ensure that supervisors have the requisite training on how to identify employees who are potentially impaired. Additionally, we recommended implementation of new measures to encourage employees in safety-sensitive positions to self-report their prescription drug use, as required by company policy.