(a) To the extent permitted by law, a covered employer who establishes a drug-free workplace is required to conduct the following types of drug or alcohol tests:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 50-9-106

  • Alcohol test: means an analysis of breath, or blood, or any other analysis that determines the presence and level or absence of alcohol as authorized by the United States department of transportation in its rules and guidelines concerning alcohol testing and drug testing. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Covered employer: means a person or entity that employs a person, is covered by the Workers' Compensation Law, compiled in chapter 6 of this title, maintains a drug-free workplace pursuant to this chapter and includes on the posting required by §. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Drug: means any controlled substance subject to testing pursuant to drug testing regulations adopted by the United States department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Drug or alcohol rehabilitation program: means a service provider that provides confidential, timely and expert identification, assessment and resolution of employee drug or alcohol abuse. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Employee: means any individual who performs services for a covered employer for wages if the services performed by the individual qualify as an employer-employee relationship with the employer based upon consideration of the following twenty (20) factors as described in the twenty-factor test of Internal Revenue Service Revenue Ruling 87-41, 1987-1 C. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Employee assistance program: means an established program capable of providing expert assessment of employee personal concerns. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Employer: means a person or entity that employs a person and that is covered by the Workers' Compensation Law, compiled in chapter 6 of this title. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Job applicant: means a person who has applied for a position with a covered employer and who has been offered employment conditioned upon successfully passing a drug or alcohol test, and may have begun work pending the results of the drug or alcohol test. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • test: means any chemical, biological or physical instrumental analysis administered by a laboratory authorized to do so pursuant to this chapter, for the purpose of determining the presence or absence of a drug or its metabolites pursuant to regulations governing drug testing adopted by the United States department of transportation or other recognized authority approved by rule by the commissioner of labor and workforce development. See Tennessee Code 50-9-103
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1)Job Applicant Drug and Alcohol Testing. A covered employer must, after a conditional offer of employment, require job applicants to submit to a drug test and may use a refusal to submit to a drug test or a positive confirmed drug test as a basis for refusing to hire a job applicant. An employer may, but is not required to, test job applicants, after a conditional offer of employment, for alcohol. Limited testing of applicants, only if it is based on a reasonable classification basis, is permissible in accordance with division rule;
(2) Reasonable-Suspicion Drug and Alcohol Testing. A covered employer must require an employee to submit to reasonable-suspicion drug or alcohol testing. A written record shall be made of the observations leading to a controlled substances reasonable suspicion test within twenty-four (24) hours of the observed behavior or before the results of the test are released, whichever is earlier. A copy of this documentation shall be given to the employee upon request, and the original documentation shall be kept confidential by the covered employer pursuant to § 50-9-109 and shall be retained by the covered employer for at least one (1) year;
(3)Routine Fitness-For-Duty Drug Testing.

(A) A covered employer shall require an employee to undergo drug or alcohol testing if, as a part of the employer’s written policy, the test is conducted as a routine part of a routinely scheduled employee fitness-for-duty medical examination, or is scheduled routinely for all members of an employment classification or group; provided, that a public employer may require scheduled, periodic testing only of employees who:

(i) Are police or peace officers;
(ii) Have drug interdiction responsibilities;
(iii) Are authorized to carry firearms;
(iv) Are engaged in activities that directly affect the safety of others;
(v) Work in direct contact with inmates in the custody of the department of correction; or
(vi) Work in direct contact with minors who have been adjudicated delinquent or who are in need of supervision in the custody of the department of children’s services;
(B) This subdivision (a)(3) does not require a drug or alcohol test if a covered employer’s personnel policy on July 1, 1998, does not include drug or alcohol testing as part of a routine fitness-for-duty medical examination. The test shall be conducted in a nondiscriminatory manner. Routine fitness-for-duty drug or alcohol testing of employees does not apply to volunteer employee health screenings, employee wellness programs, programs mandated by governmental agencies, or medical surveillance procedures that involve limited examinations targeted to a particular body part or function;
(4)Follow-Up Drug Testing. If the employee in the course of employment enters an employee assistance program for drug-related or alcohol-related problems, or a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program, the covered employer must require the employee to submit to a drug and alcohol test, as appropriate, as a follow-up to the program, unless the employee voluntarily entered the program. In those cases, the covered employer has the option to not require follow-up testing. If follow-up testing is required, it must be conducted at least once a year for a two-year period after completion of the program. Advance notice of a follow-up testing date must not be given to the employee to be tested; and
(5)Post-Accident Testing. After an accident that results in an injury, as defined in chapter 3 of this title, and the rules promulgated under chapter 3 of this title, the covered employer shall require the employee to submit to a drug or alcohol test in accordance with this chapter.
(b) This chapter does not preclude an employer from conducting any lawful testing of employees for drugs or alcohol that is in addition to the minimum testing required under this chapter.
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